The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Abuja Electricity Distribution Company

  • Niger to stop payment of electricity debt over poor supply

    Niger State government has threatened to stop the payment of electricity debt to Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) if the power outage in the state persists.

    The state Commissioner for Works, Alhaji Abdulmalik Cheche, who disclosed this while briefing journalists after the state executive council meeting on Thursday, said the power failure in the state had persisted despite government’s pleas to the power company to increase electricity supply.

    He said the state which hosts three Hydro power generation stations with 4,800 megawatts combined capacity (1,600MW each) should not suffer challenges of power outage, stressing that since AEDC has refused to increase electricity supply, the state government will stop all payment to the company.

    “It was resolved in the council that the state may decide to stop its own debt payment to the AEDC if the service they provide did not improve. The state has also resolved to stop provision of transformers since the power sector is no longer owned by the federal government but the private sector,” the commissioner stated.

    Cheche urged the people of the state to be patient on the matter, adding that government is planning for an alternative source of power supply.

    “We are calling on our people to continue to exercise patience as plans are under way to have an alternative state owned backup power supply that will be generated and distributed directly to the state,” he said.

     

  • Power supply now 2,905.70MW

    Power supply now 2,905.70MW

    The Nigerian Electricity System Operator Tuesday said that it transmitted 2,905.70Mega Watts (MW) to the 11 electricity distribution companies across the country.

    Being the arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) that allocates energy to the distribution companies, the operator said that it released 435.86MW to Ikeja, 334.16MW to Abuja, 319.65MW to Eko, 261.51MW to Benin, 261.51MW to Enugu, as Ibadan received 377.74, and Jos got 159.81MW.

    Meanwhile, it allocated 232.46MW to Kano, 232.46 to Kaduna, 188.87 to Port Harcourt, and 101.70MW to Yola.

    The System Operator’s website that made this disclosure Tuesday recalled that it on Monday attained a peak generation of 3778.90MW, low generation of 3,305.80MW.

    It also noted that its highest frequency was51.28 Hz while lowest frequency was 48.83Hz.

    Attempt to confirm what percentage of the allocation the distribution companies could send to their customers was unsuccessful as our Abuja correspondent could not reach the Head, Public Affairs Department, Dr. Usman Abba Arabi of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on phone for response.

    But speaking with the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company’s head of Public Relations & Media, Ahmed Shekarau, he revealed that the firm does not only exhaust all its allocation but it also exceeds it.

    He said “we (Abuja Disco) distribute everything, Everyday, we distribute more than what is allocated to us.”

    In a system report data for Tuesday that he made available to The Nation, the System Operator allocated a Multi-Year Tariff Order Load of 352.02MW to the ADEC while it distributed an average of 509.36MW.

    The difference between the actual average distribution and the allocation was 157.33MW while it forecast an average distribution of 399.76 for Wednesday.

  • Eko Disco lauds NERC over new electricity tariff

    The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKDC) on Thursday commended the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on the new tariff regime.

    Mr Godwin Idemudia, the Corporate Communications Manager in EKDC, gave the commendation in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos.

    He was reacting to the removal of fixed charges under the new tariff regime introduced recently by the NERC.

    According to him, removal of fixed charges by government is a welcome development which will benefit the customers a great deal.

    Idemudia said that his company would now redouble its efforts on its metering project.

    He said that the company had the least charges among the operators going by what NERC had just released.

    “What it means now is that we are going to pursue vigorously our metering rollout plans to meet the yearnings of customers.

    “But for those who cannot wait for the rollout plan to get to them, they can key into our Credited Advanced Payment Metering Implementation (CAPMI) programme to avoid estimated bills which do not favour the company nor the customers.”

    Idemudia said that his company’s recent arrangement with Egbin for supply of 100 mega watts was still in place.

    “Customers within Lekki, Ajah, Ibeju and environs will benefit greatly from this special plan.

    “This is energy that will come directly to us without passing through the national grid.

    “In this special arrangement, the customers will pay slightly more than regular customers.

    “The good news is that it would be stable almost at all times,” Idemudia explained.

    He said that the company had put in place special fault clearing teams to respond to faults during the Christmas and New Year period for faults to be attended to within a very short time of distress calls.

    “Our equipment have been serviced to take any amount of energy that may be wheeled to us by the generation companies via transmission.

    “While we wish our our customers the very best this season, we appeal to them to pay their bills regularly and also make use of our customer care helplines whenever they need our services.

    NAN recalls that the NERC, on Dec 21, outlined various rates of increase in energy charges for consumers across the country.

    It announced the removal of fixed charges for all classes of electricity consumers so that power users would only pay for what they consumed.

    Fixed charge is that component of the tariff that commits electricity consumers to paying an approved amount of money not minding whether electricity is consumed during the billing period.

    Under the new arrangement, residential customer classification (R2) in Abuja Electricity Distribution Company will no longer pay N702 fixed charge every month.

    Their energy charge will, however, increase by N9.60.

    Also, residential customers (R2 customers) in Eko and Ikeja Electricity Distribution zones will no longer pay the N750 fixed charge.

    They will, however, be paying additional N10 and N8, respectively, in their energy charges.