For more than 15 years, five local government areas in Ondo South have been without electricity supply; a situation that has resulted in lack of economic growth in the affected areas. OSAGIE OTABOR reports.
Power supply to Ondo State is poor. Many residents in Akure, the state capital, get power supply for four hours daily. A fashion designer, Idris Sadiq said the poor power supply has made him to lose several customers due to his inability to meet up with schedule on job delivery. The reason for the poor power supply to Akure and its environs is the snail pace at which the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) is taking to complete the 132/330kva sub-station in Akure, which began during the administration of President Goodluck Jonathan in 2012 and is yet to be completed.
In Ondo South, there has been no power supply to some local government areas for 15 years. Recently the Niger Delta Development Commission (NDDC) inaugurated the Ode Erinje Sub-station at Okitipupa with a view to provide power to 2,000 communities in five local government areas of Ondo South but the communities are still in darkness.
Many residents in Okitipupa said the new power station have failed to meet their expectations. They said the projects only provided electricity to some major streets in Okitipupa while other areas were left out.
A resident of Okitipupa, Hope Adeyemi said the new power plant has not served 10 per cent of the expected beneficiaries since it was inaugurated in May this year. He said residents have resorted to purchasing transformers and poles instead of waiting for the BEDC.
Adeyemi identified lack of functional equipment, transformers and distribution lines to many communities as for the epileptic power supply. He said many of the infrastructure earlier provided were vandalised.
Angered by the absence of electricity despite the inauguration of a new power plant, Olu of Igbokoda, Oba Odidi Omo Afolabi Oladimeji led a protest to demand independent electricity distribution companies if the BEDC failed to provide necessary infrastructure for the communities to benefit from the new sub-station.
He said: “Out of the five local governments in the South, there is no single one with electricity. We have been battling for years to ensure that BEDC provides us with electricity, but they said they are waiting for the sub-station that was being built in Erinje before they would provide electricity for us, even when there are other routes that they could use. But, they insisted on using Erinje which is now live, and up to now there is no electricity.
“There are about three local governments that have no poles linking them to anywhere, and there is no way they could have light. Ilaje and Okitipupa local government areas that seem to have some edge, even when they will bring light several times, what they bring is just 200 kilowatts, when there are 64,000 kilowatts in Erinje sub-station and the 200 kilowatts is not even up to four or five houses.
“So, we want the government to know that, for 11 years that BEDC has taken over as a DisCo, they have not given us light for one day and we cannot continue that way.
“We want the government to cancel the license of BEDC over that area completely. Since they have deliberately denied us electricity for 11 years, their thinking is that that area is not viable. So, there is nothing anybody can do. The little repairs that were done in our infrastructure were done by NDDC, not even BEDC.
“Now that there is electricity in Erinje, BEDC will go around homes to tell people to go and contribute money for poles, for the cables that will need to do the stringing, for the repairs of their transformers. We feel that this is illegal, this is unfair.
“We found out that most of the transformers are vandalised. When we did a joint enumeration before Erinje came on board, we discovered that 95 per cent of the infrastructure are damaged. We have the records of joint enumeration by BEDC and the community. In that area, 95 per cent transformers, poles were damaged and they said they do not have the money to do it.”
It was gathered that a new firm might have been given the license to distribute power in Ondo South in line with the demand of the protesters. A source said the new firm is yet to get the nod to purchase power from the TCN.
Besides, in 2021, the Ondo State Government under the late Governor Oluwarotimi Akeredolu embarked on moves to break the monopoly of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) in power generation and distribution in the state. The move was to ensure many communities that were not connected to the national grid get power supply. It was an aggressive pursuit to alternative route on regular electricity supply.
The first step was to repeal the old Ondo State Electricity Board law and ensured a new electricity law that would guarantee private sector participation in power generation, transmission and distribution in the state as well as provide legal framework for investors to participate in electricity provisions in areas not covered by the national grid system in Ondo State.
Besides the new electricity law, the Ondo State Government executed mini-grid projects in Gbagira, Ugbonla, Lomileju and Obejedo. Other areas were Awoye, Molutehin, Odofado and Ala Elefosan. The successes of the mini-grid projects ensured that power supply was extended to over 30 communities.
Tunji Ariyomo, who served as Special Adviser to the late Akeredolu expressed optimism that many communities would be electrified with guaranteed exclusivity period for the investors.
He said the embedded power regulations in the new law would ensure a productive relationship between the state government and operators of the mini-grid for the benefit of the communities.
His words: “Provisions of the new bill will reduce wastage in terms of fund expended by MDAs on power consumption as it would be centralised.
“If the new bill is passed and assented to, there will be job opportunities in the power sector in the state as more engineers and support staff will be engaged by the Ondo State Power Company.”
Besides the use of mini-grid systems, the state government began the construction of an Independent Power Plants in Alagbaka area of Akure. The project was said to have been at 60 per cent completion stage currently. The first Ondo IPP project, which will be powered by gas, is expected to produce between four and five megawatts of electricity.
The decentralisation of the regulatory powers of Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) further provided the impetus for the state to call for investors to invest in power generation, transmission and distribution. The Ondo State Electricity Regulatory Bureau (OSERB) has since been given powers to regulate operations of electricity providers in the state.
The incumbent Governor Lucky Aiyedatiwa has, however, taken some steps to boost electricity supply to the state. He has entered talks with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for the completion of the 132/330kva sub-station in Akure.
He has also launched the subsidised O’datiwa Mass metering project. The mass metering project target is to provide one million households with prepaid metres to curb energy theft as well as stop estimated billings by the BEDC.
Checks by The Nation showed that over 10,000 people have registered for the subsidised metres while over 5,000 metres have been installed.
The Special Adviser to Governor Aiyedatiwa, Mr. Johnson Alabi said it would cost over N5 billion to expand power infrastructure in the state and grant enabling environment for energy to be increase in the state.
Alabi said there were no plans to subsidise electricity for residents in the state even if it completed the 45mw independent power project in Akure.
He said the completion of the Akure 132/330kva sub-station would make residents enjoy 20 hours of electricity daily.
He said: “Within the next few months, Ondo State would have advanced in terms of numbers of hours of power supply daily. Ondo State have been engaging the TCN whose facility has been lying fallow for many years. That facility is located at Owode in Akure. It is a 132/330 by 33 substation. We believe that once it is energised, we will be able to provide a minimum of 20 hours daily of electricity in Ondo. That job will be completed in few weeks. Since Aiyedatiwa assumed office, he has been engaging TCN on that project. TCN has released approval to complete the project in few weeks from now. They have written to the governor to support them in granting the right of way.
“Another contract has been awarded for transmission of 33kva lines to between Okeagbe and Ikare. There is another sub-station at Okeagbe. This is good news for the people of the state. You will soon see all the things Ondo State has put in place for the people to enjoy adequate power supply.
“There are other intentions and proposals from everywhere. Because of the peace in Ondo State, investors are prepared to invest into power distribution, power generation and power transmission in the state. We have a lot of applications in place waiting to be licensed to either generate or distribute power.
“Ondo State is the first to have the Electricity Power Sector Law enacted in the country. Investors are ready to come down by the transfer of the regulatory powers to explore areas in terms of power generation and distribution. More importantly, within the next few months Ondo State would have advanced in terms of numbers of hours of power supply daily.
“The 4.5 megawatts Independent Power Plant will be powered by CNG. It is about 60 per cent complete. The contractors have come to ask for variations due to inflation. Variation is not what I can sit here and approve. It has to go to the Exco for approval.
“We have another 30 megawatts in Ore Industrial Park. We have received a number of proposals on power generation and we are reviewing them. We are looking at capacity and other options of beating down electricity cost.
“I may not be able to tell you the amount we have invested. You can imagine how much the state has invested in subsidised metres. It is running into billions of naira. As we discussed with TCN, the governor is planning to fund the project and get reimbursed later. The money involved is huge. We need N5 billion to expand power infrastructure in the state and grant enabling environment for energy to be increased in the state. The 35 megawatts we are receiving in Akure cannot do anything. Our plan is to conveniently supply power without shedding load.
“It is not sustainable to continue to pay subsidy for electricity consume because our people do not have the mentality of managing energy. The state does not have plans to subsidise electricity for anybody. What we can do is to provide subsidised meters so that you pay accurately for what you consume and not estimated billing.
“Providing subsidised metres is a new thing. We registered 3,000 to 4,000 from June to late September when the programme kicked off. Many people are still watching if the metering programme will work. People never believed it. BEDC is now rolling out meters. We pushed them to do that. Before now, the BEDC will say there is no metre.”
The Ondo Regional Head of the BEDC, Remi Faola said low power allocation from the TCN was responsible for the poor power supply in Akure and its environs.
Faola confirmed that power supply would improve in Akure if the 132/330kva sub-station is completed.
He denied allegations that the BEDC asked consumers to buy poles and transformers for electricity to be extended to the communities.
“With the population here, we can conveniently utilise 300 megawatts in a day in Akure but we do not get up to 30 megawatts daily. We have to do load shedding to enable us to distribute electricity among communities here. The injection sub-station in Akure is the one supplying Owena, Igbaraoke, Idanre, Ilara Mokin and Alagbaka. The allocation we get is seriously inadequate. That is why we don’t have stable power supply in Akure.
“The contractor handling the new sub-station has not handed over the station to the TCN. It is a Federal Government project. It will greatly improve power supply to Ondo State.
“It is not true we asked communities in Ondo South to pay for poles and transformers. You know for the past 15 years, they do not have electricity supply. We have to look at the over 300 transformers in the area to know those that are still good because many of them were vandalised. We have energised the ones we could fix. We have been extending our services to the communities. We are not asking them to pay.
“There is a company that has been telling people they have been given license to distribute electricity in that axis. Unfortunately, they do not have the infrastructure except the certificate they claimed to have. It is most likely the firm is responsible for the demand for money to provide transformers.
“We allow competition but you compete when you have the capacity. In the first instance, do they have the licence to buy electricity from the TCN? Only 11 firms were approved to buy power from the TCN. Even if the firm got the licence to buy power from the TCN, does it have the capacity to build infrastructure to deliver electricity to the people? It has to have independent poles and independent transformers. It is possible they are the ones seeking for people’s support to get transformers to their areas. We have been repairing ours and put them to use.
“It is difficult for me to say when power will be extended to all the areas. We have contractors working on the infrastructure. We will repair them.”
