LAGOS — Nigeria’s state-owned power transmission firm has strongly denied allegations by electricity distributor Ikeja Electric that recent power outages across its premium service zones were caused by national grid failures.
In a statement issued on Friday, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) called Ikeja Electric’s claims “inaccurate and misleading,” attributing the widespread power cuts instead to severe national gas shortages, reduced hydropower output, and operational faults within the distributor’s own network.
The dispute follows a public notice published on 5 November by Ikeja Electric (IKEDC)—one of Nigeria’s largest distribution companies serving parts of Lagos and Ogun states—which blamed “grid instability” for supply disruptions on its top-tier “Band A” feeders on 3 and 4 November. Customers on Band A tariffs pay higher rates for a guaranteed minimum of 20 hours of daily electricity.
Gas Shortages and Low Water Levels
Refuting the claims, TCN stated that the grid operator cannot transmit electricity that is not being produced.”The shortfall in supply to IKEDC’s customers is a consequence of reduced generation and the resulting allocation, not of any failure of TCN’s transmission network,” the statement read. TCN cited official data from the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), the statutory body mandated under Nigeria’s Electricity Act 2023 to determine system disruptions. According to NISO, national power generation has dipped significantly due to gas supply constraints to thermal plants and declining water levels at key hydroelectric reservoirs, forcing countrywide load shedding.
Network Faults and Compliance Issues
TCN further revealed that operational logs for feeders supplying Ikeja Electric contradicted the distributor’s claims. Out of 46 recorded interruptions on the disputed lines over the period, TCN said 29 were due to automatic grid load-shedding triggered by low national generation. A further 14 interruptions were assigned directly to Ikeja Electric—nine resulting from the distributor failing to comply with load allocations and five caused by equipment faults on its own local distribution grid. The remaining three instances were pre-scheduled maintenance carried out by TCN, with no unprogrammed equipment failures recorded on the transmission network.”Attributing shortfalls caused by generation constraints to TCN misinforms customers, undermines public confidence and obscures the real challenges,” TCN said, urging distribution companies to align their public communications with verified data from NISO.
Nigeria, Africa’s most populous nation and largest economy, has long struggled with a fragile power sector. Despite a total installed capacity of around 13,000 megawatts, the national grid frequently delivers less than 4,000 to 5,000 megawatts to its over 200 million residents due to gas shortages, aging infrastructure, and financial bottlenecks across the value chain.
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