Story from Sunday OGWUCHE, Abuja
Stakeholders and experts have expressed concern over the deteriorating state of power supply in recent times that has left homes and businesses with no other choice than to use generators as a source of energy in the country.
Speaking to Neptune Prime, a renowned hotelier, Chief Eze Ude, who described the electricity supply situation as horrible and unacceptable, observed that it has even gone worse these days than it was in the days of the government-owned Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
He explained that the pain of most electricity end-users, especially for those that are into commercial ventures, is that the tariff had been raised, announced or unannounced, severally and people are forced to pay, only for the supply to continue going from bad to worse on a daily basis.
“It has been horrible. Immediately after the COVID-19 pandemic broke out, some of us in the commercial sector on band C2 were paying about N49 per kilowatt (N49/KW). Then government allowed them to increase the tariff despite all objections, and they increased the tariff again and again, even as people were still struggling with COVID-19, to about N75/unit. But still, you can’t get the energy that you need. You have to go back again and start buying gas to use your generator to power your business. This is unbearable and unacceptable.
“We have left the era of PHCN behind for long, but I think what we have now is worse than then, and it is clear,” he said.
He maintained that the government is not protecting the masses in terms of as far as energy security is concerned.
“They allow the distribution companies (DisCos) to increase tariff, but the supply is not improving, instead, it is getting worse, especially these days. I am even hearing that they are about to increase again. In short, we are at the dead-end now.
“I think it has reached a point where we the people would have to gather ourselves and come out in protest. But if you do that now, the next thing the government will say you are against them ” he said.
On his part, the managing director/CEO, New Hamshire Capital, an energy firm, Odion Omonfoman, said it is very sad that the expectations and high hope of Nigerians at privatisation have not been met.
According to him, no one can say he or she is happy with what is happening in the sector at the moment.
He said, “We are not even where we used to be in 2014 when the privatisation just happened. There is a lot of disappointment going by what is happening right now.
“For instance, nobody envisaged that seven years after privatisation, we would still be talking about a metering gap of above 50 per cent. Nobody expected that seven years after privatisation government would be spending a huge amount every year by way of interventions.”
Omonfoman attributed the major problem to poor investment by the industry players.
“The companies that have the responsibilities, for instance, the DisCos, have not shown enough commitment in terms of investment,” he said, adding that in like manner, the Transmission Company of Nigeria and even the generating companies (GenCos) need to upscale their investment if the sector must work.
He blamed the quagmire in the sector mainly on the inefficiency of the regulator, adding that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) need to do more.
“All we get is TCN saying the DisCos are not picking load, and the DisCos saying transmission feeders are not coming forth and so on and so forth. This is the major challenge that I think NERC (the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission) has to sit up and tackle,” he said.
According to some of the electricity distribution operators whose views were sought by Neptune Prime News, most of the transmission feeders are without full life to meet their obligation of conveying power from the generation point to them, even as their capacities have been under-utilised.
Responding to allegations of power outage in most parts of Abuja, the federal capital territory and its environs, on the evening of Wednesday, May 26, 2021, General Manager Media and Public Relations, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) Mr Oyebode Fadipe, who confirmed the sorry state of electricity supply and the blackout in so many areas said it was so because the transmission feeders were out of service.
Fadipe states: “Admittedly, the absence of electricity makes life very uncomfortable. We deeply feel the pain of the customer as we are not shielded from the discomfort that follows the absence of electricity.
“But it is also important that we dissect the issues holistically. As a DisCo, we cannot have the power and withhold it. It is what we are given that we can give to our beloved customers.
“We have also noticed a considerable amount of load shedding in our network. We are interfacing with the sister value chain to understand the state of the grid.
“The under-listed feeders and areas affected are currently out on load shedding by TCN or on their instruction.”
He mentioned the feeders and areas affected to include: 33kV Fdr H1, affecting Garki areas 1, 2, 3, 7, 8 & 10; part of CBD affecting National Hospital and environs, foreign embassies and environs; H37 from AT3, covering the entire Garki 2 and environs, 11kV Fdrs from B5 & B52, which concerns part of Wuse2 among others.
On the same day, the National President, Nigeria Consumer Protection Network (NCPN), Mr Kunle Olubiyo, who was among the stakeholders that came out to condemn the power supply situation, alleged that many parts of the country including Abuja were suffering prolonged power outage, citing dysfunctional transmission feeders and low generation as the major factors.
Olubiyo states: “70% of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)’s 33kV feeders are out in Abuja Region and the area is on load shedding.
“In the morning, it was 3, 700 megawatts of power that was available from the generation end in the morning. In the afternoon it was 2,700 megawatts that were made available for use by the entire Country. The whole of 11 kV Feeders are out.”
Expressing his grievance, an electricity consumer, Kolapo Usman wrote: “The situation is worse this year compared to the last 3 years. You are not guaranteed any 1 hour continuous supply for weeks now in Karu. My inverter and generators are at alert.”
The World Bank had in April indicated that over 78% of electricity consumers in Nigeria received less than 12 hours of electricity supply daily.
The Bank had in an online meeting with energy correspondents in Abuja, stated that a total of 74% of power users in Nigeria were dissatisfied with the supply of electricity across the country.
It further disclosed that while 93% of metered power users paid their bills regularly, 78%of electricity consumers in Nigeria received less than 12 hours of supply daily, stressing that the findings were done after a thorough survey conducted by the global financial institution.
But the federal government quickly debunked the claim, saying it had no empirical basis.
A statement released through the Special Adviser to the President on Infrastructure, Ahmad Zakari, while disputing the survey, said it was unclear what empirical evidence the bank deployed to arrive at the figures.
The federal government though has insisted that power distribution to consumers had been steadily improving, even though it had stated much earlier that 17 of the 25 generation power plants were down, leading to a deterioration in nationwide supply.
While responding to the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP), a fact sheet released by the Bank, the Nigerian government noted that it was inaccurate to make a blanket statement on the country’s power sector.
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