Investigating Electricity Power Grid Collapses in Nigeria and Measures to Reduce its Effect During Occurrence

Abstract

Nigeria’s power grid has been characterised by frequent collapses, leading to significant economic losses and disruptions across critical sectors. These failures have been attributed to various operational challenges including voltage instability and insufficient reactive power support, which are key vulnerability factors that aggravate grid disturbances and impede quick system recovery. The persistence of these partial or total voltage collapse events continues to degrade the national economy and the reliability of the electricity system. This study examines the grid performance data from the National Control Centre (NCC), Osogbo for the period 2000 to 2025 along with proffered mitigation measures utilising shunt compensators, solar generation and Adaptive Genetic Algorithm (AGA) optimisation. A 48-bus transmission system is developed to evaluate voltage stability under various compensation schemes. The results indicate that AGA optimisation significantly enhances the stability of power grids by adaptively optimising the compensator placement, increasing the average bus voltage from 297.39 ± 1.05 kV under baseline conditions to 309.20 ± 1.04 kV after optimization. This is better than the performances of the standalone shunt (301.85 ± 1.08 kV) and solar (307.29 ± 1.08 kV) compensators. The results indicate that heuristic-based optimisation can provide a robust and adaptive approach for improving voltage stability and reducing grid vulnerability. It is therefore suggested that AGA-based optimisation be implemented into the Nigeria’s power grid management to enhance voltage regulation and system resilience. Increasing integration of renewable energy, particularly solar, will additionally boost grid resiliency, while future work should focus on real-time adaptive control for sustainable grid operation in dynamic conditions.