The Nation Newspaper

Tag: DISCO

  • Why vandalism thrives, by Eko DISCO chief

    Pipeline vandalism occurs because of the way the pipelines were constructed, and failure of the Federal Government to develop the communities that play host to the pipelines, the Managing Director/Chief Executive officer, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), Oladele Amoda, has said.

    Amoda said poor location of the pipelines, and the low level of development of the host communities are the two major reasons that make people to break pipelines, without considering its socio-economic implications to the country.

    He said the pipelines were too close to each other, coupled with the fact that the host communities are aggrieved that the government has abandoned them by not providing infrastructural facilities in their areas to create a better life for them.

    Amoda, who was represented by his Technical Assistant, Muyiwa Akinkemi, at a stakeholders’ forum in Lagos, said the pipelines were too close to each, arguing that it is easier to break two or three pipelines at once, without letting people around know.

    Speaking on the topic ‘Ways of mitigating pipeline vandalism in Nigeria’,Akinkemi said the menace would reduce once the Federal Government and other stakeholders in the oil and gas value chain come together to fashion out ways of addressing the problem.

    He said the government and the stakeholders must discuss the modalities of adjusting the ways the pipelines were located and also provide social amenities for the communities where the pipelines were sited.

    He said: “Two problems made people to break gas pipelines.  First is the issue of collocation, which is about the location or the positioning of the pipelines.  The second one is lack of infrastructure and job opportunities in the communities that host the pipelines.  The questions begging for answers are: why are pipelines located close to each other in Nigeria?  Why is that pipelines were built few metres, and not hundreds of kilometres to each other.’’

    He said the menace would reduce, once the problems, such as location of the pipelines and infrastructure, were addressed by the government. Amoda urged the government to develop the communities that are hosting the pipelines, and not their leaders.

     

     

    He said when the communities are developed, many people would benefit, noting that few people benefit when leaders in the communities are developed by way of giving them money.

    He said the perennial gas problem in the power sector can be addressed, when people stop breaking pipelines, adding that power supply will stabilise once the turbines were able to access enough gas for generation.

  • Firm to sell gas to Port Harcourt Disco

    A Nigerian firm, Green Energy International Limited (GEIL), operator of the Otakikpo Marginal Field in River state, has pledged to utilise gas for power generation to its host community.

    GEIL, an oil production firm, just struck its first oil in the Niger Delta.

    Its Technical Director, Dr Bunu Alibe, said the company would sell its excess gas to the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC), an electricity distribution company (Disco).

    A statement yesterday in Abuja by its Corporate Affairs Directorate said: “The Technical Director of the indigenous company, Dr Bunu Alibe, explained …that the strategy consists of oil production from the field while the associated gas will be processed and utilised for power generation for the communities and the excess sold to the Port Harcourt Disco, in addition to LPG extraction and bottling facility to produce and distribute domestic cooking gas.”

    Alibe said the firm recently obtained a licence for 10 Megawatts (MW) captive power from the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

    The company, according to the statement, was recently granted a license by the Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) for Modular Refinery to produce diesel and other refined products.

    It has also pursued a stakeholder partnership model with the communities around the project area, a situation which has enabled the host communities to appreciate the presence of the company as partners for sustainable development.

    The technical Director noted that the company will accelerate its drive to put in place necessary infrastructure and processes to continue full development and eventual production from the field in no distant future.

    Alibe said the company will in the months ahead install the Extended Production Facility (EPF) and construct a five-kilometre submarine pipeline to enable produced crude from the Otakikpo Field to be evacuated via a Shuttle Tanker. He highlighted that work towards the installation of a power plant and other related gas utilization projects has reached advanced stage of actualization.

     

  • Power outage: Students read under street light

    Power outage: Students read under street light

    A tour to Yaba College of Technology (Yabatech) Yaba, Lagos in the middle of the night would leave one wondering what time of the day it really could be as students floored the street reading for the forthcoming examination.

    There is no denial that the spirit of examination has inspired these students to read but definitely in different ways.

    While some students are actively engaged with their books and other educational materials, some others are engaged in a chat, playing, and shouting. For them, the maxim: ‘All read without play makes Jack a dull boy’ perfectly fits.

    Interestingly, while some took to the streets to find academic inspirations, their colleagues decided to the god of the classroom for their inspiration. Hopefully, everyone is inspired towards achieving success in the examination.

    When asked why the street has suddenly become source of inspiration, it was discovered that their action was motivated out of the lack of power supply on the campus.

    Further probe into the situation revealed that the institution has been devoid of Power supply for a couple of days, running into the exam period.

    Sadly, the institution would not entertain the excuse of lack of power supply as the reason why any student would perform poorly in the examination. Thus, the need to seek alternative but cost free power supply – Street light.

    The institution, which has being deserted for some days after the vacation of full time students, regained its liveliness as part time students prepare for examination.

    Although, practical examinations have begun with some departments of the institution, the other departments are expected to join soon.

  • Abuja Disco and Mpape residents

    SIR: I must begin by appreciating the efforts made so far by the federal government to ensure constant power supply in the country and at the same time be honest to say that the power supply in most parts of the country remains the same while some places even prefer what was obtainable before the privatization of the power sector.

    Permit me to use Mpape, one of the communities in Abuja as a case study.  Power supply in Mpape, Abuja is getting worse day by day most especially at the Mashafa Community by Okada Junction. If what residents of Mpape are experiencing now is worse than what we experienced when PHCN was yet to be privatized, then, what is the essence of privatization?

    For example, some residents of Mpape, get one day of power supply, two days off. That should not have been a serious issue except that we are always having power supply when people are already asleep on the only one day that we are supposed to have light.

    To be clear, whenever it is a day for us to get power supply, we do not have it until past midnight.  How can anyone wake up at that late hour of the night to watch television, iron clothes and so on? Would they ever leave the light till daybreak so that we can make use of it? It seems Abuja Distribution Company (Disco) would never allow that.

    I have been living in Mpape all my life and so can confidently say that what we use to get from the PHCN when it was not privatized is better than what the Abuja Disco is offering us now. When we heard of PHCN privatization as proposed by the federal government, we were very happy thinking that privatization is going to wipe away our tears of epileptic power supply.  Now we are wrong. The privatization of PHCN is now giving us double tears. We are still paying for what we haven’t gotten. We are yet to get something new, something different, something better, something befitting even though we were told that privatization of the PHCN would give us stable power supply.

    Time to tell ourselves the truth is now. We can’t continue living in darkness. We need light; we need stable power supply. Enough is enough.

     

    • Awunah Pius Terwase,

    Makurdi, Benue State

  • Kaduna DISCO to roll out 80,000 meters yearly

    The Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDC) has promised to roll out 80,000 pre-paid meters annually for the next five years.

    Its Managing Director, Haruna Garuba spoke during the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) public consultation on electricity metering  in Kaduna.

    The forum had The Credited Advance Payment  for Metering Implementation ( CAPMI) as its theme.

    He said: “We have a plan to roll out about  80,000 meters every year. In Kaduna, the customer base is about 480,000. We believe it could be more than that. So in our plan, we know more houses are being built and more customers are coming on stream. That is why we have the plan to bridge the gap.”

    He said  under CAPMI,  it is expected that customers should willingly make advance payment for pre-paid meter which the electricity distribution company is obliged to install within 45 days of provision of notice of payment by the customer.

    But Garuba said the company will rehabilitate most of the equipment and invest in infrastructure in its electricity market that cuts across over a distance of 1,000Km in Kaduna, Zamfara, Kebbi and Sokoto states.

    The NERC Commissioner, Government and Consumer Affairs, Dr. Abbah Ibrahim had earlier urged the distribution company to bridge the 60 per cent metering gap in the market.

    He said: “More that 50 per cent, in some cases 60 per cent of consumers are not metered and this led to a situation where customers are estimated.”

    He also said the commission has directed the DISCOs to publish their  electricity load shedding plan as from next year.

    Ibrahim said: “By next year, all the DISCOs will publish and they will also announce on the television in their coverage area the time they are going to do their load shedding.”

    KEDC Head, Customer Service Market, Mr. Sunday Yahaya said the company which has commenced verification of customers has installed 8,601 meters under the CAPMI scheme.

    He told the commission that the challenge in the provision of meters to the customers was the large area of coverage by the company and the distance from where the  vendors transport the meters.

    He added that some of the customers hardly notify the company that they have paid for the meters.

    A customers who simply identified himself as Buba Umar from Kwaro, complained that his community earns low income  therefore NERC should review the method of CAPMI payment, which according to him was  a burden for the customers.

    He urged the commission to make room for part payment, noting that since the companies are private  investors,  they should be prepared for long time investment.

    Another customer, Sunday Olusegun complained that his electricity bill suddenly rose to N60,000 monthly in June this year.

  • BPE: Shifting the goal post

    BPE: Shifting the goal post

    •The fate of power consumers is in the hands of an ill-prepared player

    For a process that ought to have been home and dry by simple adherence to rules and guidelines, it is unfortunate that the sale of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (DISCO), one of the 17 Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) successor companies put up for sale in December 2010, is still embroiled in controversy.

    Northwest Power Limited had emerged top bidder for the DISCO at the conclusion of the exercise. December 23, 2013, it executed the Share Purchase Agreement with the Bureau for Public Enterprise (BPE) which gave it until June 23, to make the 75 per cent balance payment.

    Unable to beat the June 23 deadline, BPE allegedly extended the deadline to August 6, to ensure that the company did not lose the mandatory 25 per cent initial down payment made for the acquisition of the assets of the power distribution company. By August 6, the company could still not pay. Instead, it wrote to the National Council on Privatisation requesting for further extension by two months.

    It is unfortunate that the guidelines which not only appear so straight-forward, but designed to give credibility to the process are being flouted by the BPE in favour of Northwest Power Limited.

    The rules, as spelt out in Section 15 (140) is clear: “Within six (6) months after signing of the Share Sale Agreement, or at a mutually agreed upon time, the Bidder will be required to pay the outstanding seventy-five per cent (75%) of the share purchase price to complete the transaction. Failure to complete the transaction within a mutually agreed timeframe will result in the forfeiture of the down payment as per the terms of the Share Sale Agreement.”

    The issue would seem one of fidelity to the process. Having extended the June 23 deadline in clear disregard of the guidelines, it then became a matter of how far the law could be bent to accommodate the interests behind them. In this particular instance, it appears the BPE would rather prefer to act as if the niceties of the law and process do not matter.

    It is hard to imagine that the BPE, a creation of statute, would cynically jettison the rule for reason(s) unsupported by the law. We are certainly not persuaded of the factor of an exigency as to warrant the setting aside of the regulations, which, in any case, would amount to endorsing the rule of the thumb, and arbitrariness.

    We must say that the development is a telling commentary on the privatisation exercise as a whole. Had the Federal Government not gone into the frenzy of premature self-congratulation soon after the bids were announced, it would have afforded itself the opportunity to reflect on what the emergence of unknown quantities in the global power scene, with neither the financial muscle nor the technical savvy to bring on board, forebode for the sector. Now, if Northwest Power Limited cannot raise the funds to consummate its bid, how then would the company be able to bring the necessary funds to upgrade the erstwhile PHCN systems?

    As it is, one can only imagine that the fate of electricity consumers under Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company is in the hands of an ill-prepared player.

    The situation is however not beyond salvage. Under the guidelines, the reserve bidder ought to have been called in; time now for the BPE to do the right thing – which means engaging the reserve bidder without further delay.

  • DISCO rejects N2m tariff review fee

    DISCO rejects N2m tariff review fee

    A representative of the Abuja Electricity Distribution  Company (Abuja DISCO) Engr. Bola Odubiyi yesterday asked the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to reduce the N2million proposed as application filing fee, arguing that it was unreasonable.

    He argued that since NERC’s  core mandate is not to generate revenue,  it should reduce the fee to N250,000.

    Making his input to the “Regulation for Tariff Review in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) in Abuja, Odubuyi insisted that the request is totally unreasonable because it is a legitimate responsibility of the commission to entertain such request.

    He added that the companies are already remitting funds to the commission on monthly basis.

    His said: “On the extra-ordinary we find the application of N2million to the regulatory body, and we are already  paying NERC every month. Asking us to pay N2million for what is a legitimate request is totally unreasonable.

    “We accept that if you charge some fees, which should not be more than N250,000. Remember that NERC is not a money making organisation. You are not a profit making organisation. You are supposed to cover your cost only, not to make profit.”

    Odubiyi also warned the commission on the danger of entertaining separate applications from different companies at different times, stressing that it would lead to staggered tariff in NERC.

    “We want to state clearly that for the extra-ordinary review, this process will lead to a staggered tariff for all market participants instead of what we have now where everything is done once,” he said.

  • Deadline for payment of Kaduna, Afam power assets expires

    Deadline for payment of Kaduna, Afam power assets expires

    The deadline set by the Federal Government for preferred bidders of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (DISCO) and Afam Generation Company (Genco) to pay the  75 per cent of the bid price of the assets expired yesterday.

    According to sources at the agencies responsible for privatisation of public owned assets, who spoke to The Nation, said the deadline became necessary because the new owners were foot-dragging in paying the balance, a problem which delayed the conclusion of privatisation of the successor companies unbundled from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

    The sources said the preferred bidder for Afam Power Generation Plc, the Taleveras Group, a consortium made up of Alstom Nigeria Limited, Alstom Group, the Rivers State Government and Talevaras Petroleum Trading BV, paid 25 per cent of the bid price of $260,050,000, but were reluctant to disclose the bid price of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company.

    They explained that what led to the deferment of sale of Kaduna DISCO was not finance but technical, adding that none of the previous bidders met the technical requirement of the privatisation agencies.

    But they  noted that the preferred bidder, Northwest Power Limited met the Aggregate Technical Commercial and Collection Loss reduction (AT&C) of 29.26 per cent, but refused to disclose how much the consortium offered for the utility firm.

    The two preferred bidders have been granted access to the assets since February and have been working with the transitional committees to  be familiar the terrain.

     

     

    They will be working with the committee and companies’ managements until full payments are made and will be when they would assume full control of the power assets.

    The Director-General of Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), Benjamin Dikki, however, told the new owners that they were only allowed access to information and to acquaint themselves with the workings of the companies and not in decision-making.

    The transitional committees would aid the new owners to interact, learn from the managements of the companies inherited from PHCN on operations of the companies. The process is also part of the Post Acquisition Plan (PAP), to enable the investors interface with the management and ensure smooth transition from public sector-oriented companies to private sector driven firms. They will also work with the inherited PHCN staff for six months after, which they will decide on whom to retain or sack.

    The two companies emerged preferred bidders for the two assets in August yet seven months after, they are still to assume full control of the assets thereby delaying government’s efforts to provide stable power supply in the country.

     

     

  • Lawmaker urges DISCOs to patronise local meter manufacturers

    Mrs Abike Dabiri-Erewa, a member of the House of Representatives Committee on Power, on Monday appealed to electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) to patronise local meter manufacturing companies.

    The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that Dabiri-Erewa made the appeal when she visited Momas Meter Manufacturing Company (MEMCOL) in Lagos.

    She said that there was the need for government at all levels to support indigenous companies to strive rather than encourage importation of pre-paid meters.

    Dabiri-Erewa said that the only way to ensure the growth of the economy was to encourage patronage of local industries.

    She said that Nigeria had the best meter manufacturing company and there was no need importing meter into the country. “I was shocked when I saw the equipment at MEMCOL.

    “I didn’t believe that we have that kind of sophisticated equipment in Nigeria and we still complain about metering challenges.

    “In spite of the effort by local companies to manufacture energy meters, we still go ahead to import meters; this is very bad for the economy.

    “It will be better we make use of what we have. We have to believe in our people.

    “As a parliamentarian, I am going to discuss with the House Committee on Power on ways to enforce patronage of local meter manufacturing companies,’’ she said.

    Dabiri-Arewa urged all DISCOs to ensure that all consumers were metered to avoid estimated billings.

    She said that the DISCOs might be compelled to install pre-paid meters to all electricity consumers soon.

    The Chairman of MEMCOL, Mr Kola Balogun, decried poor patronage by government agencies in spite of the competiveness of the product internationally.

    Balogun said that the low patronage had retarded the growth of the company.

    He said that employment opportunities would triple if local manufacturers got more support from government at all levels.

    He said that the local content policy of government would not succeed if home-made innovations were not adequately utilised.

    “I can tell you that our company has 100 per cent local content in the manufacturing of meters.

    “Even all our operations and production processes are managed by Nigerians.

    “The company produces about one million meters a month,” he said.

     

  • Calling on Ikeja DISCO

    SIR: I live in Hilltop Estate Close, not far from Aboru community at Agbado-Oke

    Local Government Development Area. We are connected to the Ikeja Distribution Company (DISCO).

    Power supply in my estate has been very abysmal. We have not had power for up five hours in the last five days. The unpleasant and unfortunate

    consequence is that things stored in refrigerators get ruined, we go out without our cloths ironed; the whole environment is pitch black at night.

    Ikeja DISCO should do something to improve power supply to our estate.

    • Adesuyi Mike,

    Lagos