Nigeria was plunged into widespread darkness on Monday following the collapse of the national electricity grid after several major power plants abruptly lost generation.
Investigations by our correspondent revealed that the grid failure occurred at about 3:00 pm, disrupting electricity supply across many parts of the country. Data available at the time showed that power generation, which had earlier peaked at approximately 4,800 megawatts, crashed dramatically to just 139 megawatts.
The exact cause of the collapse had yet to be officially determined as of press time. However, the incident came amid efforts by the Nigerian Independent System Operator to increase power generation after recent disruptions linked to gas supply shortages caused by pipeline vandalism.
Further checks confirmed that all 22 power plants connected to the national grid were affected, with each losing generation at the time of the incident, worsening the nationwide blackout.
