The Nation Newspaper

Tag: Eko DISCO

  • Eko DISCO seeks 400MW from embedded generation

    Eko DISCO seeks 400MW from embedded generation

    •Partners Flour Mills, Honeywell on ‘captive’ power

     

    The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) is searching for alternative power supply of about 400 megawatts (MW) to meet the demand of its customers as the supply from thwe national grid has fallen, a development which necessitated cutting the firm’s daily power need of 700MW to 250MW, thereby leading to massive load-shedding and rationing.

    EKEDC’s Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Oladele Amoda, told The Nation that the initiative had become imperative as the company cannot continue to rely on the power supply from the grid.

    He said with the embedded generation, a chunk of the power would be under the company’s control, which would enable EKEDC to offer its customers some stable supply and plan proper maintenance schedules when necessary.

    He said the company has advertised for submission of bids by the companies that are interested to be part of the embedded generation (generation outside the national grid) deal, adding that on expiration of the bids’submission, the management will select the successful or preferred bidders, sign Power Purchase Agreements (PPAs) with them, meter their generation, send it to the company’s system and to the customers.

    Amoda said the management of EKEDC is also discussing with companies that generate more than they need, such as Honeywell and Flour Mills, to buy the excess power, adding that the company has concluded such arrangement with Island Power to be buying 1.5MW from its generation at off-peak periods between 10pm and 6am, which will commence before end of the month.

    Amoda said: “We have advertised to invite the people that are willing to partner with us in the embedded generation deal. Several of them have applied. The successful bidders will put up their plants of various capacities depending on what they want to do. They will put up the plant and we will sign PPA agreement with them. We will meter their generation at the intake and send the power to our customers.

    “The main purpose of this initiative is that we will not continue to rely on the power that we get from the grid because it is not constant, it fluctuates and besides, in the past five months, we have not been able to get more than 260 MW and even sometimes less than 100MW and we have the capability of taking 700MW, which is the demand. You can see the difference between an average of 200MW and 700MW daily.’’

    He continued: “The consequence of this huge supply gap is rationing of available power and massive load-shedding, which are ongoing. They attributed the power supply gap to inadequate gas to run the power stations, arising from vandalism and sabotage, so that is where we are. Going forward, we are looking at about 400MW from embedded that will be under our control and will not be subject to grid supply. This will enable us to offer our customers a measure of stable supply. The initiative will us enable us plan maintenance of our facilities when necessary by having a regulated load-shedding programme that everybody will know, but we cannot do any reasonable load-shedding programme because of the limited supply.

    ‘’We are starting on gradually and will ramp up 400MW by mid-next year because many people are showing interest to partner with us. At the expiration of submission of applications, we will go through the bids and inform those that are successful and when we will draw the PPA we will go to NERC because it has a role to play in it.’’

  • Man drags Eko Disco to court over wife’s electrocution, demands compensation

    TWO years after he lost his wife to electrocution, a father of three, Mr. Tope Arowolo, has dragged the Eko Electricity Distribution Company to court accusing the company of negligence.

    Arowolo’s wife, Aminat, who was a food vendor, met her untimely death on June 18, 2011 at their residence on No 14, Audu Baale Street, Iwaya, Yaba, Lagos.

    The incident happened during a heavy downpour on the fateful day when one of the electric cables on a nearby pole snapped. Aminat, who was selling food at the entrance of their residence and other neighbours, reportedly ran for cover in their residence.

    Tragedy, however, struck moments after the rain subsided when Aminat came out to continue with her business but unknowingly stepped on a live wire.

    In the suit filed at a Lagos High Court sitting in Igbosere on behalf of Arowolo by a human rights group, the Social and Economic Rights Action Centre (SERAC), the distraught widower is asking for “the sum of N50 million in general damages to the claimant and another N33.8 million in special damages to the claimant.”

    In the suit, the claimant avers that his wife’s death had been a profound tragedy and loss to him and his children with attendant financial hardship, among others.

    He is, therefore, seeking a declaration that the death of his wife was caused by the defendant’s neglect or default in maintaining its electrical wires and related apparatuses and also that its failure to respond to resulting emergencies entitles him to damages under the common law tort of negligence and pursuant to the Lagos State Fatal Accidents Law, Cap F1.

    It was, however, gathered that the defendants asked for an out- of-court settlement of the matter when the case came up at the court on Tuesday March 4, 2014, while the presiding judge, Justice Alogba, adjourned the case till May 18.

  • Eko DISCO: How Sambo, others influenced bids

    Eko DISCO: How Sambo, others influenced bids

    Fresh facts on the just concluded bid for the 11 PHCN Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs) have exposed gross irregularities that characterised the exercise with Vice President Namadi Sambo and other members of the National Council on Privatisation (NCP) showing their hands in who got what.

    The Nation can authoritatively report that the bid for the Eko DISCO, for instance, was highly flawed and due process wantonly breached.

    Whereas requirements set by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for participation in the bid specified that bidders must have a net worth of not less than $100million, a 28 page document entitled: ‘Report on the Assessment to Determine “fit and proper” Persons to Operate in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) dated October 9, 2012’, obtained exclusively by The Nation showed that many of the bidding companies did not meet this particular requirement.

    Bidders in this category are: NPD Consortium, West Power & Gas Ltd, ENL Consortium Ltd, Electric Utilities Ltd for Eko DISCO; ENL Consortium Ltd, Skipper Nigeria Ltd, ICOMM Energy Ltd and Electric Utilities Ltd for Ibadan DISCO.

    Other firms failed the technical evaluation test. These are SEO International, West Power & Gas Ltd and Daniel Power Plant Company Nigeria Ltd for Ikeja DISCO; Skipper Nigeria Ltd, NAHCO Power Consortium, Interstate Electrics Ltd, ENL Consortium Ltd for Abuja DISCO; SNECOU Group of Companies Ltd, VIVADIS Power Ltd (ORTECH Consortium) for Yola DISCO; Profile Energy Consortium Ltd for Kano DISCO; NAHCO Energy Power Ltd, Skipper Nigeria Ltd for Kaduna DISCO; Utility Integrated Management Services Ltd for Port Harcourt DISCO; Masters Energy Oil & Gas Ltd for Jos DISCO and Southern Electricity Distribution Company, Cable & Rods Company Nigeria Ltd, Copper Belt Consortium, Duncan Freeman Company/Draytom Energy Ltd for Benin DISCO respectively.

    Investigation by The Nation revealed that West Power & Gas, which had been disqualified as “unfit and improper” by the 20-man committee set by the NERC at the first stage for having insufficient net worth was later given the opportunity to shore up its net worth through a foreign bank to enable it make up its deficit of $50 million. Its initial net worth valued at $50 million fell short of the requisite $100 million.

    Highly placed sources confided in The Nation that West Power & Gas, reportedly owned by Charles Mommoh, is close to the corridors of power.

    Sources further disclosed that Mr. Atedo Peterside, who is Chairman of National Council on Privatisation (NCP) Technical Committee, may have been overruled by the Vice President in the bid for Eko DISCO.

    Of the nine proposals for Eko DISCO, West Power & Gas was one of the four firms which failed the technical evaluation on account of insufficient net worth, but it was allegedly allowed to illegally shore up its net worth and continue as a participant in the exercise while others in a situation similar to its own were left out.

    The guidelines for the process said: “…bidders are only allowed to be declared the preferred bidder for a maximum of two distribution companies, and that the winners of Eko and Ikeja must be different bidders. In the event that a bidder is placed as the preferred bidder for more than two distribution companies or for both Eko and Ikeja, bidders will be assigned preferred companies based on their Order of Preference which is to be submitted with their commercial proposal as the Request for Proposal.”

    This means that the stated Order of Preference submitted along with bids cannot be altered by companies midway into the exercise. Integrated Energy Distribution & Marketing Ltd, which had earlier cited Yola and Ibadan in its Order of Preference lost out in the bid for Eko and Ikeja DISCOs.

    Thus, with Integrated Energy Distribution & Marketing Ltd, which naturally came first in the bid for Eko DISCO out of the way due to Order of Preference rule, the preferred bidder that came second, KEPCO/NEDC Consortium, ought to have won the bid for Eko DISCO but was illegally switched to Ikeja DISCO, for which it never expressed preference, thus paving the way for West Power & Gas Consortium, which came a distant third, to secure control of Eko DISCO.