Daniel Adaji
The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) has dismissed reports of a nationwide grid collapse, insisting that the national electricity grid remained stable and fully operational during the incident recorded on Thursday, February 19, 2026.
In a statement issued on February 22, NISO clarified that what occurred was not a “system collapse” but a protection trip on some 330kV transmission lines around the Onitsha Transmission Station at about 11:47am.
The clarification followed media reports, including one by Punch Newspaper, which alleged that a system collapse at approximately 11:54am triggered a total blackout across the South-East region.
NISO, however, categorically refuted the claim.
“At approximately 11:47hrs, a protection trip was recorded on some 330kV transmission lines around the Onitsha Transmission Station,” the operator stated. “The tripping of these lines led to a temporary and localized outage affecting certain areas supplied through the impacted transmission corridors.”
According to the statement, the disruption affected portions of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) and the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) networks.
Despite the outage in those areas, NISO maintained that the national grid did not experience a collapse.
“However, the national grid remained stable and fully operational. Generation across other regions was not disrupted.
System frequency remained within acceptable operational limits and there was no widespread loss of synchronism or nationwide blackout, conditions that would characterize a system collapse,” the statement read.
The affected transmission lines have since been restored, with electricity supply reinstated to impacted locations.
While acknowledging the inconvenience caused to consumers within the affected corridors, NISO urged media organisations, stakeholders and the public to avoid spreading unverified information.
“We urge stakeholders, media organizations, and members of the public to desist from rumors and rely only on verified technical updates from NISO which remains the only authentic source of information on all grid events,” the management stated.
It added that the Nigerian National Grid remains under continuous technical supervision to ensure reliability, resilience and system security.
