An early morning collapse of the electricity grid operated by the transmission company of Nigeria (TCN) has triggered blackouts in at least five states in the northern region of the country.

States such as Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi, Zamfara and Benue are affected by the system failure, which occurred at about 11am, prompting electricity distribution companies to send notification messages to customers and promising that the fault would be rectified.

“We regret to inform you that the power outage currently being experienced across our franchise – Kaduna, Sokoto, Kebbi and Zamfara states – is as a result of the collapse of the national grid,” Abdulazeez Abdullahi, head of media at Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, stated.

Similarly, the Jos Electricity Distribution Company attributed the cause of the power outage in Azare and Bauchi to the collapse of the system operated by the TCN.

The Eko Electricity Distribution Company also cited partial collapse of the national grid in messages to customers, according to a report by Punch

The national grid collapse has occurred many times this year. It failed twice in 24 hours in January and again in February. This problem, combined with insufficient power generation ranging from 4000 to 6000 megawatt, has forced businesses to depend on fossil fuel powered generator resulting in high cost of production.