The Federal Government has restored the vandalised Benin-Egbin 330kV transmission line, raising electricity supply to the Lagos electricity complex to more than 1,000 megawatts (MW), following recent disruptions that affected households and businesses across Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and parts of Kwara State.
The Minister of Power, Joseph Tegbe, disclosed this during a television interview on TVC on Monday, 9 November 2026, explaining that the restoration followed urgent interventions to address damage to critical transmission infrastructure and planned maintenance at Egbin Power Station.
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Tegbe clarified that the recent electricity disruption was not a national grid collapse but a significant reduction in available power caused by the simultaneous loss of two major infrastructure assets.
According to the minister, the vandalised Benin-Egbin transmission line normally conveys between 300MW and 400MW into the Lagos electricity complex.
Its failure, alongside maintenance work at Egbin Power Station, resulted in a combined loss of almost 800MW, forcing electricity operators to introduce load shedding across affected areas.
“As of yesterday, the Benin-Egbin line was restored. As of last night and this morning, the Lagos complex is receiving about 1,000 megawatts,” Tegbe said.
He added that Egbin Power Station’s ST1 turbine had returned to operation, while another turbine, ST3, was expected to resume generation later on Monday, potentially contributing an additional 150MW to the Lagos electricity complex.
The restoration followed an earlier assurance by the minister that the government would address the disruption within 48 to 72 hours.
In a separate update, Tegbe confirmed that electricity had returned to many previously affected locations, including parts of Lagos, Ogun, Oyo and Kwara, as well as the Federal Capital Territory.
However, he acknowledged that efforts were continuing to restore full supply to the remaining affected communities.
The development comes against the backdrop of longstanding challenges in Nigeria’s electricity sector, where ageing infrastructure, inadequate generation, gas supply constraints and transmission limitations continue to affect reliable electricity delivery.
In a report by TheCable, Tegbe had earlier identified planned maintenance at Egbin, gas supply constraints affecting thermal power stations and the vandalism of transmission infrastructure as factors behind the recent reduction in electricity supply.
Beyond the immediate repairs, the government is also targeting the restoration of the Osogbo-Ikeja West 330kV transmission line, which has remained out of service for approximately 18 months following the vandalism of about six transmission towers.
The minister said the line has the capacity to deliver an additional 400MW to Lagos when fully restored.
The project has, however, faced significant engineering challenges because some of the damaged infrastructure is located in swampy terrain, making access and repair operations difficult.
The Federal Government is targeting the completion of the restoration by the end of November 2026, following a commitment secured from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Tegbe explained that four major transmission lines serve the Lagos electricity complex, but only three were operational at the time of the interview.
Restoring the fourth line would provide additional transmission capacity and reduce the corridor’s vulnerability when one of its existing routes experiences a disruption.
The minister also identified infrastructure vandalism as a major obstacle to efforts to improve electricity supply, warning that the destruction of transmission towers and other critical assets could affect thousands of households and businesses.
To strengthen protection, he disclosed that a joint task force involving the Ministry of Power, TCN, Nigerian Independent System Operator (NISO), the Office of the National Security Adviser, Homeland Security and other security agencies had been established.
The initiative is expected to map vulnerable transmission corridors and explore the deployment of drones and other surveillance technologies to detect suspicious activities and improve security responses.
The government is also engaging the National Assembly on stronger legal provisions to ensure that individuals responsible for destroying critical electricity infrastructure face appropriate prosecution.
Despite the restoration announcement, the latest development does not necessarily mean that every affected neighbourhood has returned to a consistent electricity supply.
Reports by Pulse Nigeria on Monday documented reactions from residents who questioned the extent of the restoration, with some saying they were still experiencing outages in their communities.
The distinction highlights the difference between increased power available at the transmission level and the actual electricity delivered to individual homes and businesses through distribution networks.
While the restoration of the Benin-Egbin line represents an important recovery for the Lagos electricity corridor, attention will now turn to the timely completion of the Osogbo-Ikeja West project and the government’s ability to protect existing infrastructure.
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For millions of electricity consumers and businesses across the affected states, sustained improvement in supply, rather than a temporary return of power, remains the bigger test of the government’s intervention.
