Egbin Shutdown and Line Fault Hit Lagos Power Supply

Lagos, Nigeria's commercial hub, is grappling with widespread power outages after the Egbin Power Station, the largest on the national grid, shut down completely late on April 28, 2026, compounded by a fault on a key transmission line.

The Nigerian Independent System Operator disclosed in a statement Thursday that the incident at the Ikorodu-based plant occurred around 8:21 p.m., when generation plummeted from 641 megawatts to zero. Officials attributed the shutdown to a failure in the central compressor unit and a malfunction in the circulating water pump system, prompting an immediate halt of all generating units for safety reasons.

The disruption worsened due to an unrelated outage on the Osogbo-Ikeja West 330kV transmission line, a vital corridor for delivering power to Lagos. This dual failure has severely restricted electricity supply to the region, Nigeria's biggest power consumer.

"This loss of generation has created a significant supply shortfall, necessitating immediate load-shedding measures to maintain grid stability and prevent a wider system disturbance," the operator stated. System managers have redistributed available power among distribution companies,...