NISO confirms national grid restored after 330kV trippings

The Nigerian Independent System Operator said the national grid has returned to normal operation after multiple trippings on the 330kV transmission network on Monday, October 19, 2026. NISO said the incident began at about 12:40 hours and affected only a section of the grid.

What NISO said

In a press release posted on its official X account and signed "Management", NISO said it worked with the Transmission Company of Nigeria to carry out corrective measures that brought the power system back to stability. The grid operator urged the public to rely on its official channels for updates and pushed back against media reports it described as misleading. NISO said some reports had misrepresented the scale of the disruption.

Distribution companies had earlier spoken about outages and disruptions that spread to multiple states after the trippings. Several of them blamed the transmission-level fault for cuts to supply in their areas.

Nigerians push back

The announcement drew sharp responses from Nigerians on social media, with many questioning the credibility of the claim given conditions on the ground. @haztola wrote: "National grid collapse or no national grid collapse. I live in a place in Abeokuta where we are only given less than 2 hours light per week and we are placed in Band B."

@Tope4dTop challenged the grid operator's broader strategy: "We thought your low load allocation to Lagos Discos was meant to stabilise the grid, so, explain why this still happened despite withholding the supply people need? Why is Egbin being asked to generate only 250MW?"

@FayehunTem48274 directed a question at electricity distributor EKEDP: "@EKEDP are you aware that the national grid has returned to normal operations?"

@segunabayomi was more pointed in his frustration: "Which yeye misleading information are you people referring to when we are still in darkness yet you're concerned about information that the grid has collapsed."

Energy zones plan

The federal government is planning energy zones to provide 24-hour electricity to homes, businesses and industries in major areas. The proposed zones will target the Lagos axis, Abuja-Kaduna-Kano and Enugu-Port Harcourt corridors. The government says the plan will address distribution challenges, improve power supply and boost DisCos' revenue and electricity collection.

For businesses and households, the latest grid disruption adds to concerns about the reliability of supply. Stable power remains central to production costs and consumer prices.