Egbin Power Plant Goes Dark After Contractor Dies in Underwater Accident

Nigeria’s largest electricity generation plant has been offline since Tuesday, April 28, after a contractor died in a grim underwater accident inside Egbin Power Plc’s lagoon pump system in Lagos.

The man was killed by a pump impeller. He went into the lagoon water pump system for a maintenance operation, and the pump came on unexpectedly while he was still in the restricted zone. He didn’t make it out. The contractor was affiliated with Browndive Underwater Services, a firm that handles complex underwater industrial work across Nigeria’s oil, gas, and maritime sectors.

The Plant, Offline Since Tuesday

Egbin Power Plc confirmed the shutdown on Thursday through its Head of Corporate Affairs, Felix Ofulue, who expressed condolences to the deceased’s family and said emergency protocols were activated immediately after the incident. “Egbin Power remains firmly committed to the health, safety, and well-being of all personnel and contractors,” he said in a statement to the News Agency of Nigeria.

Sources told Sahara Reporters the incident occurred around 8 pm on Tuesday. Since then, the plant has remained disconnected from the national grid as engineers and safety officials carry out detailed assessments.

What This Means for Nigeria’s Grid

Egbin is not a small generator. It has an installed capacity of 1,320 megawatts across six units of 220 MW each, and supplies over 16% of total electricity on the national grid. Taking that offline — for however long — is a significant hit to an already battered power supply system.

Nigeria’s grid collapses regularly. The national electricity output has been stuck between 3,500 and 5,000 MW for years, against a demand that experts estimate at 30,000 MW or higher. Losing Egbin’s full potential output, even temporarily, compounds every household and business already running generators for most of the day.

The investigation into what caused the pump to activate while the diver was inside is ongoing. The full extent of the plant shutdown — which units are affected and when operations will resume — has not been officially disclosed.

Sources: Vanguard, Sahara Reporters