The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Eko DISCO

  • Save Itire from Eko Disco

    SIR: The hardship deliberately imposed on the residents and legal business operators in Itire community by Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKDC) is becoming highly unbearable. The community is situated in Mushin Local Council Area of Lagos. EKDC, citing unsubstantiated attack on its staff, completely cut-off electricity supply to the area mid-November. Consequently, socio-economic activities have been brought to a standstill.

    EKDC habitually imposes outrageous and estimated bills on the electricity consumers. Its staff, without any prior notice, also engages in indiscriminate and most times illegal disconnection of households and business premises even those with pre-paid metres. Most attempts by some leaders of thoughts from the affected community to dialogue with the management of the company in resolving the bill issue hit the rock.

    However, an unidentified staff of EKDC publicly assured that electricity would be restored to the community on Monday, December 7. The assurance came after a peaceful protest by some of the residents and business owners at the company’s premises at Lekki. Silverbird Television (STV), last week, aptly captured the protest and EKDC’s assurance during its primetime news bulletin.

    The yuletide is here and EKDC is yet to fulfill its promise. There are speculations that the company has deferred electricity restoration to the area to January, next year. This unconfirmed but shocking decision has evidently increased the hardship suffered by the consumers. The people are also contending with the unbearable noise and air pollution from power generating sets.

     

    • Shorikwue Odiaka

    Itire, Lagos.

  • Eko Disco to re-route Unilag electricity feeder lines

    Eko Disco to re-route Unilag electricity feeder lines

    The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (Eko Disco) will soon begin the re-routing of electricity feeder lines at the University of Lagos (Unilag) and other areas, its Chief Executive officer Mr Oladele Amoda, said yesterday.

    Speaking at the company’s quarterly media briefing in Lagos, Amoda, explained that the cables would be run underground to avoid electrical accidents and electrocution.

    Miss Juliana Anekwe, a 300-level student of University of Lagos (UNILAG) was  electrocuted on the campus last month when a live wire fell on her.

    Amoda admitted that changing of all obsolete cables and re-routing of feeder lines under-ground within its network became necessary to guard against frequent cable damage and loss of lives.

    According to him, as we proceed with our commitment to optimal service delivery to customers, it is sad to see some unfortunate incidents that appear to stain the gains of our efforts.

    “One of such incidents is the recent electrocution in Unilag in which the precious life of a young and promising Nigerian was lost. As an organisation with a very high premium on human lives, we are so pained and grieved by this incident and we have taken measures to prevent a recurrence.

    “The snapped overhead line that led to loss of life was part of the obsolete network inherited from PHCN but the incident was more painful to us. The line was already slated for conversion to underground cables as part of our network upgrade project when the incident occurred,’’ Amoda said.

  • New electricity tariff becomes effective in October

    New electricity tariff becomes effective in October

    • NERC targets 100% revenue collection

    • Eko Disco to abolish fixed charge

    The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is targeting 100 per cent revenue collection when the new tariff is effected in October.

    Speaking with The Nation in a telephone conversation yesterday, its Chairman, Dr. Sam Amadi said the Distribution Electricity Companies (Discos) which are looking forward to tariff and revenue increase are yet to ramp up their payment.

    According to him, the power distribution firms are however paying gradually.

    He said: “The Discos are paying and we are expecting revenue increase. We are working on a new tariff . But the Discos are yet to ramp up payment. They are paying gradually.

    “We are expecting more improvement in tariff and revenue collection.  We expect them to do 100 per cent as we are going when the new tariff becomes effective in October.”

    Meanwhile, the management of Eko Electricity Distribution Plc (EKEDP) yesteray said it plans to abolish monthly fixed charges on its consumers.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Mr Oladele Amuda who spoke at a stakeholders forum in Lagos, said the company would present the proposal to NERC for approval.

    “The company is proposing to abolish fixed monthly tariff charge from their bills but this has to be approved by NERC.

    “I can assure you that if NERC approves the abolition of fixed charge by October, we will start to implement it immediately,” he said.

    The chief executive officer urged consumers within the zone to embrace cost reflective tariff to enable the company serve them better.

    Amuda lamented that the company is constrained by the present tariff regime which was not cost-reflective.

    He said the new proposed tariff was N25 per kilowatt instead of the N17 per kilowatt that was being used to charge now.

    Amuda said with the new tariff, the company would have sufficient money to change many transformers and conductors.

    He said the company has engaged two Nigerian meter manufacturers to supply 50,000 prepaid meters outside Credit Advancement Payment Metering Installation (CAPMI) scheme.

    He said these would be given to consumers with faulty meters and to replace all old meters.

    Amuda assured that all consumers would be metered but advised consumers that could not wait to apply under CAPMI scheme.

    He said the company had installed 34,565 prepaid meters to consumers in the zone under the scheme.

    In a related development, the  Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has sent out 4,008.53 Megawatts (Mw) to Discos, according to the Power Statistics of the Federal Ministry of Power.

    Following the statistics which the ministry posted on its website yesterday, energy supply only dipped by 4.86Mw from the 4,013.39Mw sent out on  September 16.

    The TCN however recorded a spinning reserve or stranded power of 89.78Mw that it could not wheel out of the 4 098.31Mw produced by the electricity generation companies (Gencos) .

    Energy generated that was 4,099.72Mw on September 16 however dipped slightly to  4,098.31Mw on Sunday, indicating a relatively steady average power generation in the electricity market in 10 days.

    The market however dropped from the 4,735Mw peak energy generation of September 16 to 4,405.3Mw last Sunday, resulting in gap of 329.7Mw.

    In NESI, the highest power power generated is still the  4,810.7 Mw of August 25.

    On the power generation, the chairman said there was fire outbreak in Kainji last week, adding were it not for this, power generation would have exceeded the aforementioned result.

    Amadi added that power generation is also expected to increase very soon when the Calabar Power Plant comes on stream.

  • Why we want to increase tariff, by Eko DISCO

    Why we want to increase tariff, by Eko DISCO

    Electricity  consumers will pay more despite the epileptic supply, if the distribution companies have their way.

    Eko Electricity Distribution Plc, which is championing  a tariff hike, said it would enable the firm service its customers better and sustain service delivery.

    Its Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr Oladele Amoda, said the tariff hike had become imperative if the gap between power demand and supply must be bridged on sustainable basis. He said because of poor supply from the grid, the company wants to explore off-grid (embedded) generation, which is private sector driven and more expensive, to meet customers’  demand.

    Amoda said: “As stakeholders in the power sector, many of us are familiar with the state of the industry before privatisation. The industry was bedeviled by myriad of problems including mismatch between level of demand for electricity and level of supply; lack of investment in supply infrastructure for decades; dilapidated distribution infrastructure; huge technical and collection losses; huge indebtedness by customers; tariff that was not cost-reflective; vandalism of equipment and cables, low energy allocation from the national grid; and obsolete metering system.”

    When the private sector investors took over on November 1, 2013, the challenge was how to quickly overcome these problems, guarantee sustainable and quality power supply with customer-friendly attitude, he said, adding that the company currently is exploring alternative source of power supply.

    He noted that the only source of bulk power supply is from the national grid, which is grossly inadequate but stated the company has begun  a process to augment power allocation from the grid with about 700 megawatts (MW) through embedded independent power plants (IPPs), and more from bilateral agreements with existing merchant generators.  Also we are making effort to reduce aggregate technical, commercial and collection (ATC&C) losses, he added.

    He said: “At the advent of privatisation, our loss stood at 35 per cent but today it is below 30 per cent. The modest reduction was achieved through network rehabilitation, reinforcement, improvement and assets upgrade. More than N10 billion have so far been expended on these projects. Poor metering is one of the legacies inherited from the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN). We have initiated a robust metering plan, if approved by the regulatory body – the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), will enable us roll out and step up meter installation activities and this will run through the next few years until all our customers have functional meters. The meters will come with modern technology to delight customers. This will cost a whooping sum of N52 billion.

    “We are also investing in technology to automate most of our operations by introducing SCADA/DMS, GIS, CRM, among others, for the efficient management of our distribution network and customer care activities. These processes will facilitate quicker faults detection/rectification and thus improve services. It will also reduce downtime and improve safety of human and equipment.

    “To ease payment of electricity bills, we have upgraded our multiple channels of payment such as ATM, internet, scratch cards, POS, telephone, and extended bank vending, among others. We have established a 24/7 customer help lines to attend to customer complaints on supply and commercial related issues’’.

     

  • Eko DISCO, customers discuss planned tariff increase

    The management of Eko Electricity Distribution Plc (Eko DISCO) has held a consultative meeting with stakeholders within its network to discuss planned increase in tariff it wants to implement.

    Its Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Oladele Amoda, said the increase in tariff is to reflect realities in the industry, where the investors pay for gas, replacement, rehabilitation and upgrade of electricity equipment and facilities.

    He said: “All our activities in Eko DISCO are being guided by a regulatory framework and guidelines. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), as the umpire, is committed to regulating quality services through effective monitoring.

    “One key mandate of the Commission as contained in the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act 2005 is to put in place an efficient electricity market and structures that will sustain the market. This includes customer protection measures, and approval of cost-reflective tariff that will ensure sustainable business model for operators across the industry.

    “It is believed that ‘nothing good comes easy’ and Eko Electricity Distribution Plc has invested so much to sustain and enhance operations toward improving services to the customers. It is on the need to sustain continuous investment that we have called for this meeting, in order to consult with our esteemed customers on our proposed adjustment in tariff to partly meet the reality of the prevailing economic situation. “We shall continue to interact regularly on area by area basis to further strengthen the relationship and understanding between our company and our esteemed customers.”

    Amoda also said the company has invested substantially in upgrading the network as well as in human capacity development, adding that many staff have trained locally and abroad to update them with latest technology in power distribution, commercial and customers care activities.

    More training programmes and workshops have been proposed for further implementation, he added.

  • Eko Disco acquires vehicles to improve service

    Eko Disco acquires vehicles to improve service

    The Eko Electricity Distribution Company has acquired 15 new pickup trucks to enhance its services and bridge gaps in delivery period.

    Its Managing Director, Dr Oladele Amoda while unveiling the new vehicles at the company’s corporate headquarters in Lagos, said the acquisition of the vehicles was in pursuit of the company’s drive towards continuous satisfactory service delivery and general operational efficiency.

    He said the vehicles would be deployed to strategic operational units of the company for quick response to technical faults clearing, billing issues and customer complaints. He said the reinforcement of the company’s fleet has been a continuous exercise, adding that the vehicles being unveiled were the first phase of the vehicle acquisition programme.

    To ensure seamless interaction with customers, Amoda said help lines, which customers would use to reach the company at any time on any issue, are written on all the vehicles.

    Amoda also appealed to customers to endure  what he described ‘’as not too satisfactory state of power supply” in areas under the company’s network. According to him, the company is aware of the plight of its customers as regards inadequate power supply.  The situation, he said, was not limited to Eko Disco coverage area alone. He assured customers that efforts by Eko Disco to seek alternative source of power supply through embedded generation would soon start yielding positive fruits.

    The management decried the spate of violent attacks on its workers on their lawful duties by some people claiming to be protesting against poor power supply in their communities.

    The Head of Corporate Communication, Mr. Godwin Idemudia said poor power supply can never be a plausible excuse for anybody to take the law into his hand and unleash violence on workers on their lawful duties. He said rather than resorting to attacks on staff and vandalism of property, the company expects customers having complaints to lodge them through appropriate avenues such as contacting the customer care centre either on phone or online, or coming directly to any of the operational unit of the company.

    The management warned perpetrators of the ‘criminal and barbaric act’ to desist from that, adding that the company would not fold its hands and watch its workers being attacked on the guise of poor power supply. The full weight of the law would be brought on anybody caught in the act.

  • More jobs coming in Egbin Power, Eko DISCO

    More jobs coming in Egbin Power, Eko DISCO

    With the rehabilitation of its sixth steam turbine, Egbin Power Generation Plc may soon throw its doors open to job seekers. So also is Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), which is carrying out an audit to create fresh openings. EMEKA UGWUANYI reports.

    Here is good news for job seekers, especially those with engineering  and technical skills. There will soon be job openings in Egbin Power Generation Plc and Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) in Lagos State.

    The Egbin Power management has rehabilitated the plant’s sixth steam turbine (ST06), adding 220 megawatts (MW) to the national grid. The company is also upgrading its facility; overhauling and retooling the ST04 to maximise output. With the rehabilitation, the plant’s six turbines are operational and meeting its 1320MW installed capacity. The jobs will come from the planned expansion of the plant, which will add another 1,350MW from the combined cycle plant.

    Chairman, Egbin Power Plc Kola Adesina said on handover of the plant to its new owners, Sahara Power Group and Korea Electric Power Company Nigeria (KEPCO) in November 2013, the plants rehabilitation became a priority.  He noted that the restoration of ST06 and the retooling of ST04 have created thousands of jobs, adding that more will be created.

    In recognition of the importance of commerce and industry, output from Egbin unit Six will be made available under an innovative bilateral commercial arrangement to Eko and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Companies to help improve power availability in Lagos and its industrial outskirts.

    “We are, indeed, leading a new dawn in job creation within Lagos and its environs. We have made significant investments in the rehabilitation of Unit Six, overhauling and retooling of Unit Four, renovation of the office space, computerisation of processes, and increase in staff remuneration. We recruited 107 engineers to shore up the capacity deployment in the plant, he said, adding that by the development, over 6,000 direct jobs and over 10,000 indirect employments will be created in terms of support and maintenance services, engineering, procurement, supplies to power sector, including support for the small and medium scale industries.”

    On the new 1350MW plant planned for construction, Adesina stated that the management has inaugurated the Front End Engineering Design (FEED) study. After the preliminary activities, including the conduct of Environmental Impact Assessment (EIA), among others, the company will mobilise to site.

    From the foundation, construction and installation of the turbines, tens of thousands of direct and indirect jobs will be created for specialised, skilled and unskilled job seekers outside engineers and technicians, he stated.

    Adesina said electricity has played a pivotal role in unlocking potentials, unchaining productivity and releasing vital energy that guarantees individual and national prosperity, innovation and industrialisation. Electricity supply in a reliable manner will help uplift the creative intelligence of our people and engender exceptional entrepreneurship in our citizens.

    “We have commenced an ambitious plan to double the capacity of Egbin within the next four years, Adesina said, adding that the 1,350MW will be realised with the kick-starting of the Combined Cycle plant with its Front End Engineering Design Study in place.

    “For us to achieve these noble objectives and unravel the bottlenecks in the value chain, we seek government’s help in terms of gas availability and expansion of the transmission network.

    But in the light of paucity of funds faced by the government, the hands of the private sector needs to be strengthened by allowing significant investment in both the transmission and gas infrastructure. With the appropriate models and investment recovery mechanism, this holistic public private partnership (PPP) approach, will engender a faster, cheaper and more productive result in rapidly growing the value chain.

    “Beyond the shores of our nation, we aim to eventually expand the scope of our operations to the African market, through acquisition of existing power facilities and building of new infrastructure, not only through trading of electricity across Africa but also to provide a leeway to trans-national development.”

    The owners of the Egbin Power and Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company – the Sahara Energy Group and its partner, Korea Electric Power Company Nigeria (KEPCO) recently employed 107 young graduate engineers who are being trained by the National Power Training Institute (NAPTIN) under the National Power Sector Apprenticeship Scheme (NAPSAN). The company is also set for recruitment.

    Adesina said the choice of NAPTIN for this resource function was informed by the company’s belief that it is well equipped to provide the depth of expertise required to master peculiarities of the sector as the reforms continue to unfold.

    He noted that Sahara Power would also take advantage of its relationship with the globally renowned Korea Electric Power Company to expose its professionals to offshore training and exchange programmes.

    The Minister of Power Prof Chinedu Nebo said the Federal Government in an effort to create more jobs spaces in the power sector, initiated a one-year apprenticeship scheme to train 7,400 young Nigerians on technical jobs. Known as NAPSAS at will ensure that there is adequate skilled manpower base that will take up jobs in the sector instead of expatriates.

    Participants are drawn from across the country and trained in batches. Nebo said the initiative is vital or lest foreigners will take up the jobs. “We need this and we cannot run away from it because if we don’t do it, the Chinese and Indians will take them up. They are even here already and you see them doing jobs that Nigerians can do. Why don’t we train our people as we create these jobs so that when the international companies demand for expatriate quota, we can ask them if they have exhausted the local capacity that we have here?”

    The NAPSAS programme will afford young Nigerians the opportunity to receive technical trainings in the area of electrical fitters, cable jointers, linesmen and district substation operators within six months to one year.

    The minister explained the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria (NAPTIN) will manage the scheme and trainees will be drawn from all states of the federation, with state governments sponsoring 1,000 of them while the federal government will sponsor another 1,000 in addition to providing monthly stipends of N18,000 through the duration of the training.

    On conclusion of the EKEDC audits, some workers will be retired to create employment for the young, it was learnt. “Ongoing staff audit when concluded, will pave way for stronger and efficient workforce. Several engineers, technicians, IT personnel will be added to the workforce. I must also tell you that regular training and retraining of staff will be stepped henceforth.”

    EKEDC Chief Executive Officer Dr Oladele Amoda, confirmed plans, but said the company is not sacking anybody.

    “We only want to re-strengthen the workforce and ensure efficiency to meet the aspirations of the company,” he said.

    “Legacy members of staff are aging and need to be replaced by the younger ones. We don’t want to experience skills-gap. The younger ones that would be employed will get tutelage the employment before the aged workforce,” he said, adding that the company currently has a workforce of about 2,200 staff members.

     

  • Eko DISCO votes N18b for capex

    Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) has earmarked N18 billion for capital expenditure this year, the Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Oladele Amoda, has said.

    Amoda, who made this known at the firm’s quarterly briefing, said $15 million has been set aside for the acquisition of both Maximum Demand metres for industrial users and aother N20 billion for residential and commercial customers.

    He said the company is making efforts to improve electricity supply to its customers and it is currently reinforcing its network and exploring embedded generation to complement supply from the national grid.

    He said power supply from the grid currently hovers around 200 megawatts (MW) to 250MW, a level he said is grossly inadequate for customers on the firm’s network. He said the generation level is a far cry from the needed 700Mw needed to meet its customers’ demand.

    To address this, Amoda said the company has signed on some power generating firms to provide EKEDC electricity. He listed some of the companies to include Ijora Power 13MW, Apapa Power firm 30MW and Parax, a power firm in Ogijo, Ogun State, 40MW.

    He said the Eko Power firm is eyeing about 170MW from off-grid (embedded) supply in the next few years.

    On the debts owed by customers, Amoda stated that before privatisation, the company was owed N10 billion, and mostly by the military and government agencies; these debts have now been inherited by the Nigeria Electricity Liability Management Company Limited (NELMCO).

    From November 2013 to date, he said that customers owe the company N700 million; debts which are chiefly owed by the military and government but noted that the management is discussing with the military on modality of payment.

  • Senate to partner power investors to tackle challenges

    Senate to partner power investors to tackle challenges

    • Eko DISCO votes N6.9b for meters

    The Senate Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation has assured to work with the newly privatised Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) and others in the electricity sector to ensure that the privatization of the sector meets expectations of Nigerians for improved power supply in the country.

    Its Chairman, Senator Gbenga Obadara made the assurance during the committee’s oversight visit to Eko Electricity Distribution Company yesterday in Lagos.

    Obadara said the committee is aware of the expectations of Nigerians from the newly privatised electricity companies as well as the challenges facing the sector. He said the committee in its oversight visits has noticed the major problem confronting not just Eko DISCO but other DISCOs is energy theft and vandalism of power equipment.

    The Managing Director/ Chief Executive Officer of the company, Oladele Amoda, said the company has earmarked N6.9 billion to be spent in the next five years on acquisition of meters. He said customers, who are presently being billed without meters, will soon have cause to smile as the 360,000 meters are on the way.

    He explained that N1.3 billion would be expended on the first phase of the project, which would be for purchase of about 5,000 meters for all high voltage or maximum demand customers of the company.  The maximum demand customers, he said, were responsible for about 70 per cent of the company’s revenue generation; hence the company is starting with that category of customers.