Nigeria’s electricity supply crisis has shown little improvement, with stranded generation capacity rising to 2,275 megawatts by December 2025, underscoring persistent weaknesses in the country’s transmission network and deepening liquidity challenges across the power sector.
Operational data from electricity generation companies (GenCos) show that although power plants have available capacity, a significant volume of electricity cannot be transmitted to consumers due to grid constraints, resulting in load shedding and unstable supply nationwide.
Records indicate that stranded capacity stood at 2,248.5MW in 2021, declined to 1,816.49MW in 2022, rose to 2,226.96MW in 2023, dipped slightly to 2,180.31MW in 2024, and climbed to 2,275.67MW in December 2025—the highest level within the five-year period.
GenCos described the situation as a major concern, estimating a 33.6 per cent deficiency in power evacuation, largely blamed on obsolete transmission infrastructure and limited grid capacity. They warned that the inability to evacuate generated power continues to erode revenues and discourage new investment, even as electricity demand grows.
Distribution Companies (DisCos), however, attributed erratic supply to load restrictions imposed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), which they said had forced widespread load shedding across their networks.
The situation worsened in December 2025 following the vandalisation of gas pipelines supplying key power plants, leading to reduced generation during the Christmas period. The Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), an arm of TCN, confirmed that gas supply disruptions caused a drop in national grid output, affecting several gas-fired plants.
Although NISO later announced an improvement after repairs to the Lagos–Escravos–Lagos gas pipeline and the restoration of gas supply, power supply has remained unstable in many parts of the country. NISO’s Lagos Regional Operations Manager, Engr. Yusuf Gbadamosi, said there was no generation shortfall, noting that “what is available has been fully allocated.”
Power sector experts argue that the challenges are systemic, citing weak transmission infrastructure, grid instability, gas transportation bottlenecks and load rejection by DisCos. The Managing Director of the Association of Power Generation Companies, Dr. Joy Ogaji, said GenCos are ready to produce more electricity but are constrained by failures in other segments of the value chain.
