On Friday, March 7, 2025, Nigeria experienced a major collapse of the national power grid, resulting in widespread blackouts across several regions, including Lagos.
The incident came just days after the federal government had celebrated what it termed a “historic rise” in electricity generation, reaching 6,000 megawatts (MW).
Despite the recent milestone, a sudden grid failure saw power generation drop drastically, falling below 1,000MW by 2:00 PM. Earlier that day, electricity generation had stood at approximately 4,000MW but suffered a significant decline following the disturbance. The highest level of power generation recorded on Friday was 5,284MW at 5:00 AM. However, by 4:00 PM, the available supply had further deteriorated to a mere 803MW, as several power plants struggled to restore their contribution to the national grid.
Confirming the development, the Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company (IKEDC) informed its customers about the situation, stating:
“Dear esteemed customer, please be informed that we experienced a system outage today, 07/03/2025, at 14:00hrs, affecting supply within our network. Restoration of supply is ongoing in collaboration with our critical stakeholders. Kindly bear with us.”Similarly, the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) also addressed its customers, explaining the cause of the blackout and assuring them that efforts were underway to restore supply. In its statement, the company noted:
“Dear valued customer, please be informed that a system disruption occurred on March 7, 2025, at 13:59 hrs, leading to a widespread power outage across our network. We are actively working with our partners to ensure a swift restoration of the grid. Updates will be provided as soon as power is restored. We appreciate your patience.”
As of the latest update, electricity distribution companies and other key stakeholders were working to stabilize the grid and restore power supply to affected areas.
