Residents of Asaba, the Delta State capital since its creation in August 27, 1991, have endured poor public power supply.
Numerous communities across Aniocha North, Aniocha South, Oshimili North and Oshimili South have suffered worse fate than Asaba with some enduring blackouts for upwards of ten years.
So, its residents must have heaved a sigh of relief following the commissioning by the Federal Government of the 330/132/33KVA transmission substation located near Asaba after many postponements.
But several months after the inauguration of the transmission substation, public power supply in Asaba and environs has remained epileptic and unreliable, dashing the high expectations of residents.
The frustrated communities have led several protests against the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) demanding improved services.
The Supervising Engineer, Nigeria Integrated Power Plant (NIPP), Mr Amobi Odinakachukwu, further stoked the embers of controversy when he criticised BEDC for dereliction of duties, stressing that basic power infrastructure are lacking.
His words: “If there is any problem that makes power not to get down to consumers, I think it is the responsibility of BEDC to take care of that. I think for my own view, most of the areas in Asaba lack power because there are no distribution poles and high tension lines, but there is ongoing rehabilitation of these lines by the Federal Government bodies – NIPP and Federal Ministry of Power.
“BEDC also has not come up with serious strategies for solving the problem. May be we will have to wait for them, perhaps they are still sleeping.”
Amobi accused BEDC of shutting down most of their transformers and were not receiving power from the NIPP, adding if all BEDC’s transformers were working there would be light for all Asaba residents and beyond.
He added: “BEDC has simply shut down most of their transformers and are not receiving power from the NIPP, if all their transformers within their network is on everybody will have light. If they have been managing a certain megawatts, let say, 10 megawatts, with current local poorly motivated workforce, and are comfortable returning funds based on that, if the manager increases his capacity to say 30 megawatts and is unable to make returns generated don’t you think he will be axed?”
Also, an advocacy group known as The Concerned Citizens of Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency, in a petition through their counsel, Augustine Elikwu & Co, made available to Niger Delta Report, are threatening mass protest including disrupting electricity supply to ‘favoured private companies’ and instituting legal redress.
It also threatened to invoke the Freedom of Information Act to know the modalities with which BEDC obtained the right/licence to distribute electricity within Delta State.
The petition reads: “It is our client’s demand that you and your company connect/evacuate the light to the various towns and villages in Aniocha/Oshimili Federal Constituency that these substations were meant to serve within two weeks from the date of this letter, failing which our client will stage a mass protest against you and your company and we shall also be forced to do whatever is necessary to stop everybody in Asaba and environs, including the private companies from enjoying electricity.”
Residents have alleged underhand practices by BEDC, blaming the epileptic power supply to diversion of energy from transmission lines direct from the 330/132/33 KVA substation to major industries , including a major telecommunication, steel smelting and aluminium companies among others in the area.
NDR gathered that the 330/132/33 KVA substation is equipped with six feeders and that all have been energised, but BEDC has dedicated two feeders for private companies.
The aggrieved communities’ members also claim that BEDC’s desire to service the high net customers to the detriment of residents was the reason behind the poor power supply.
Manager, Benin Business District, Dr Abiodun gave credence to these speculations recently in an interview with Niger Delta Report when he said: “As a business person, if you have a product that sells for maybe 10,000 units and that same product sells higher somewhere else, where will you take it to? The tariff structure is not created by BEDC; the BEDC does not have power to fix tariff NERC has the responsibility to do this.”
But he debunked insinuations that the amount of energy allocated to Asaba and environs have risen since the 330/132/33KVA transmission substation was commissioned.
According to Abiodun, the energy allocated to BEDC by National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) from power generated nationwide is 9%, adding that this translates to 24megawatts.
He maintained that available power allocated to Asaba and environs is insufficient and has not improved with the commissioning of the new substation adding that BEDC in a bid to satisfy all its customers have resorted to load shedding.
“When BEDC was taking supplies from General Cutting Mill, Onitsha with only single line running from Onitsha to Asaba the power being transferred was about 24 megawatts, that is our allocation. The share of BEDC of the power that is generated nationwide is 9 per cent. BEDC is just one of the 11 DISCO’s in the country. BEDC serves four States – Ondo, Ekiti, Delta and Edo. We have 22 business units.
“For instance if power generation is 2700MW and our share is 270mw if it is to be divided equally, according to business unit that would be 12.2 mw for each business unit, but energy is shared according to location and customer population. Asaba’s share is about 24 mw.”
Dr Abiodun describes the 330/132/33 KVA substation thus: “The project can be likened to having a very big pipe and only little water is flowing through the pipe. That is just the problem, not until our allocation of power is increased the epileptic power will continue. For now it is the same 24 mw that we were taking from Onitsha that we are still taking from there. It is because of this allocated power that we have not been able to serve other communities. We want this allocation to be increased so that we can serve other communities.”
He accused an engineer supervising the NIPP of altering its initial design in favour of Ibusa community, adding that the alteration is posing challenges to efficient evacuation of energy.
He, however, added that when the power substation has been delivered the BEDC will effect changes that will enhance distribution of electricity.
He said: “I do not want to mention names; there is a staff of NIPP, this has been an argument, it is that there was supposed to be a line to Ibusa and that was what was shown to me at headquarters now it going to be two lines. That is where the argument comes in. The contractor explained that the 2/15 MVA transformers in Ibusa is to be served with a dedicated line and there will be another line going to Ogwashi-Uku via Ibusa so making two lines to that axis.
“The NIPP has six lines coming out, initially the BEDC design and expectation is that of the six lines, the steel companies will have one line each, so they will not have anything to do with other public lines, but the engineer supervising the project altered the design making Asaba have 2 lines which we call Asaba line 1 and Asaba line 2. Asaba line 1 will feed the injection substation near B Division, while line 2 will feed Government/Core area, Okpanam and the new substation to be commissioned at Government House. Another line will go to Isselu-Uku and environs, the fourth one will go to Ibusa and the fifth one will also go to Ibusa and Ogwashi-Uku because there is a 2/15MVA transformer under construction there, then the other lines will be used for the industries and other businesses,” Dr Abiodun explained.
On efforts by BEDC to electrify communities that have experienced blackout for several years, he noted that an enumeration exercise was going on in some Issele-Uku, Ubulu-Uku and other communities, stressing that when it is completed power will be restored.
He added that BEDC chose this option because data from the moribund Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) could not be relied upon.
On the vexatious estimated billing system by BEDC, Abiodun maintained that a new billing method was being adopted by his organisation.
“We have a new method of billing of customers that are not metered. It is called cluster billing, though it may not be 100 per cent correct. The method looks at the cluster which are categorised into A, B, C. We use customers who have functional meters to assess what others will consume.”
