Nigeria’s power grid again partially breaks down, causing blackouts

Nigeria’s national grid partially collapsed on Tuesday, according to the country’s power broadcaster. This is the ninth event this year that has caused power outages across the country.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said that several line and generator trips made the system unstable around 12:52 GMT, which caused a disturbance in the grid.

Within an hour of the fall, power came back on in some areas, including the capital, Abuja. However, power outages continued in other areas.

“TCN engineers are already working to quickly restore bulk power supply to the states affected by the partial disturbance,” a spokesperson said.

Africa’s most populous country, Nigeria, with over 200 million people, often goes dark because its power grid is old, its thermal plants, which produce over 75% of the continent’s output, are vandalized, and there isn’t enough gas.

Nigeria’s infrastructure can make about 13,000 megawatts of electricity, but the country’s grid is so old that it can only distribute a third of that amount. This means that homes and companies have to use expensive fuel generators.