From David Onuoja, Abuja
As Nigerians welcome 2026, another grid disturbance has greeted the year as darkness looms everywhere in the country.
In a statement issued by the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), stated that another historic grid disturbance has occurred at approximately 12:40 hours on Friday, 23 January, 2026.
This led to the national grid experienced with a system-wide disturbance, which resulted in total outage across the interconnected network.
According to the statement, the preliminary operational reports indicated that the disturbance was associated with the simultaneous tripping of multiple 330kV transmission lines, alongside the disconnection of some grid-connected generating units. These events it said, collectively contributed to the system collapse at the time indicated.
Following the outage, system restoration activities commenced at about 13:15 hours, in accordance with established grid restoration and recovery procedures. “As of the time of this update, electricity supply has been successfully restored to Abuja, Osogbo, Benin, Onitsha, Sakete, Jebba, Kainji, Shiroro, and parts of Lagos, while restoration efforts are ongoing progressively in other parts of the country”.
The detailed investigation into the root and contributory causes of the disturbance is currently ongoing. While promising that the full restoration and stabilization of the grid remains a top operational priority.

