Electricity supply has been disrupted across seven northern states following a planned outage by the Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO) to facilitate upgrades to the national grid.
The affected states—Plateau, Gombe, Bauchi, Borno, Adamawa, Taraba and Yobe—are experiencing intermittent power cuts as work commences on the Jos–Gombe 330kV transmission line.
According to NISO, the outage, which began on April 9, will continue until May 22, 2026, occurring weekly from Thursday to Sunday between 9:00 a.m. and 6:00 p.m.
The system operator explained that the disruption is necessary to enable the installation of Optical Ground Wire fibre optic infrastructure along the transmission corridor, part of broader efforts to modernise the grid.
“This outage is necessary to facilitate the installation of Optical Ground Wire fibre optic infrastructure along the line,” NISO said, adding that the upgrade aims to enhance grid operations through improved “SCADA (Supervisory Control and Data Acquisition), EMS (Energy Management Systems), and telecommunications capabilities.”
The agency noted that the improvements are expected to strengthen real-time monitoring, fault detection, load balancing and overall energy delivery across the region.
While alternative supply will be routed through available 132kV transmission lines, NISO cautioned that consumers may still experience reduced electricity during the outage period due to network constraints.
“However, due to inherent network constraints and limited capacity on these lines, customers may experience reduced power supply and service limitations within the stated outage window,” the operator stated.
Despite the temporary disruption, NISO assured that the project would deliver long-term benefits, including improved reliability, faster fault response and better coordination across the grid.
The development highlights ongoing efforts to address structural challenges in Nigeria’s power transmission network, even as consumers continue to grapple with periodic outages linked to infrastructure upgrades.
