According to punch newspaper, On July 7, 2024, states across Nigeria faced yet another blackout as the national electricity grid plummeted to 70.60 megawatts at approximately 4 pm. This incident marked the seventh grid collapse in 2024, with previous failures occurring on February 4, April 10, April 15, March 11, March 12, and March 28.
At the inauguration of the 31-member Presidential Economic Coordination Council at the Presidential Villa in Abuja on Thursday, President Bola Tinubu labeled the nation's electricity generation issues as "shameful." He stated, "We have the challenge of energy security in Nigeria. We need to work together to improve our oil and gas sector, and we must also increase electricity generation, as well as distribution throughout the country."
Data from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) indicated a dramatic drop in power generation, from 3,976.24MW at 10 am to just 70.60MW by 4 pm on Saturday. The Trans-Amadi Gas Turbine Power Plant in Rivers State was the sole supplier at that time, contributing a meager 0.80MW.
The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) confirmed the grid collapse, impacting customers in Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu, and Imo states. Emeka Ezeh, EEDC’s Head of Corporate Communications, stated, "The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company wishes to inform its esteemed customers of a general system collapse which occurred at 15:09 hours today, July 6, 2024."
Similar confirmations came from the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, Kano DisCo, and Ikeja DisCo, all citing the national grid collapse as the cause of widespread outages. By 6 pm, all eight Discos reported a load allocation of 0.00MW, underscoring the severity of the situation.