Blackout as electricity grid collapses again

A collapse of the nation’s electricity grid has once again led to a blackout across the country.

In a statement, Oyebode Fadipe, general manager, corporate communications at the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), said the system collapse happened around 12:26pm on Wednesday.

He said the incident led to an interruption of power supply in Abuja and its environs.

Fadipe assured customers that power supply will be restored to the states within its franchise as soon as the firm receives significant improvement in energy allocation.

“We have been unable to serve our customers in Niger, Kogi and Nasarawa States as well as a significant portion of the entire Federal Capital Territory,” Fadipe said.

“At the moment, only 20 megawatts (MW) has been allocated to AEDC as against the over 400MW that we have been receiving in recent times.”

In a message to its customers, the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) also assured that power supply will be restored as soon as the the grid recovers from the collapse.

“Dear customer, the present outage is due to a system collapse on the National Grid. TCN assures us that supply will be restored shortly,” the company said in text message.

The grid often records partial or total collapse, which renders most homes in darkness. The grid collapsed in February and May, leading to a blackout across the country.