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Author: Constance Athekame

  • Expert hails plans to set up consumers’ protection unit

    Expert hails plans to set up consumers” protection unit

    Consumers

    By Constance Athekame

    Abuja, June 9, 2024(NAN) A power expert, Mr Princewill Okorie, has commended the Minister of Power, Mr Adebayo Adelabu, on plans to set up a consumers’ protection unit in the Ministry.

    Okorie, the Executive Director, Electricity Consumers Protection Advocacy Centre, said this in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Sunday.

     He said, ”I am glad that the minister plans to set up consumers’ protection unit in the ministry of power.

     ”Today, you have a department overseeing transmission, generation and  distribution, none overseeing consumer protection.

    “ And  consumers are the ones paying money for electricity,  so there is a need to have that unit and he has promised that it will be set up under the distribution department of  the ministry.

    “That will be  good,  if he will do that, when set up; the first thing that should be done is adequate electricity consumer enlightenment. ‘”

    According to him, the Electricity Act 2023 section 119 is on consumer protection and licensee performance standards but most consumers don’t know about it.

    He said that the section deals with re-connection,  disconnection and complete handling service performance standards of the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos).

    “There should be adequate enlightenment because it is only consumers that understand the sector and what their rights are 

    “For instance, how many consumers are aware that when they pay for a meter under the Mass Meter Access Provider (MAP) they are supposed to get a refund for the money they paid through credit tokens?

     “Most consumers do not know, so DisCos deal with them.

    ”How many of them are aware of network expansion investment policy which entails that when you invest in infrastructure you recover your money, ‘’ he said.

     Okorie said that the stakeholders in the power sector kept talking about investment, adding, ”nobody can say this is what the consumers have invested.

    ”Or how many transformers have the DisCos bought and how many have the communities bought.

     “Unfortunately, consumers’ investments in the sector are not refunded. This is not fair to the consumers.

    “Is there punishment for the DisCos for not remitting the money that they collect from unmetered consumers because we have not seen much action on that? ‘’(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

    COA/BRM

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    Edited by Bashir Rabe Mna

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

     

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  • North -East-Jos-Gombe 330KV line restored -TCN

    North -East-Jos-Gombe 330KV line restored -TCN

    Power

    By Constance Athekame

    Abuja,  June 5, 2024 (NAN) The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), says the Jos-Gombe 330 Kilo Volt (kV) Single Circuit Transmission line has been restored.

    TCN says bulk supply was restored through the line on Tuesday at 9:37 pm.

    Mrs Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs said this in a statement in Abuja on Wednesday.

    She said that the line now wheels normal load allocation from the National Control Centre (NCC) to transmission substations in the North East.

    The manager said it also wheels to distribution load centers for Kano and Jos DisCos to off take and distribute to its customers in the North East.

    ”We are thankful for every assistance rendered by the governors in the North East and patience displayed by all the affected electricity consumers.

    ”Our gratitude also goes to the security operatives who always escorted our contractor and staff to the sites of the incidents, as well as the contractor and TCN engineers,”she said.

    She said that TCN is appealing to residents in communities hosting or close to power installations to be vigilant, and to report any act or suspicion of vandalism to security operatives.

    Mbah said that this would help the company swiftly arrest the situation, so as to preserve our power transmission towers and lines nationwide.(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)

    COA/JPE

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    Edited by Joseph Edeh

  • North-East – TCN completes  reconstruction of 4 vandalised towers

    Power
    Constance Athekame
    Abuja, June 4, 2024 (NAN) The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), says it has completed the rehabilitation and re-stringing of the four vandalised towers along the Jos–Gombe 330 Kilo Volt (kV) transmission line.
    Mrs Ndidi Mbah, TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday, said that the towers supplied bulk power to substations in the North- East.
    Mbah said that the re-stringing of the conductors was completed on Monday, adding that the contractors had reconnected the jumper on tower 282, making it ready for the transmission of bulk electricity.
    ”Recall that when the vandalised towers were discovered on April 22, TCN promptly mobilised contractors and its supervising engineers to the site of the incident to immediately commence repairs.
    ”Initially, TCN had promised to complete the repairs and restore supply by May 27, however, the collapse of the fourth tower during the re-stringing process delayed the completion.
    ”The four towers have since been completed, and the line is now ready for bulk power transmission,” she said.
    Mbah said that TCN appreciates the patience and support of the governors and people in the North Eastern part of the nation during the period of the tower reconstruction. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
    COA/EBI/EEE
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    Edited by Benson Iziama/Ese E. Eniola Williams

  • Blackout-Labour unions shutdown national grid -TCN 

    Blackout
    By Constance Athekame
    Abuja, June 3, 2024 (NAN) The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), says that the Labour Unions have shut down the national grid, resulting in black out  nationwide.
    Mrs Ndi Mbah, TCN’S General Public Affairs Manager, said this in a statement in Abuha on Monday.
    Mbah said that the national grid shut down occured at about 2.19 a. m this morning.
    She said at about 1:15 a. m, the Benin Transmission Operator under the Independent System Operations unit of TCN reported that all operators were driven away from the control room.
    Mbah said that members of staff that resisted were beaten while some were wounded in the course of forcing them out of the control room and without any form of control or supervision, the Benin Area Control Centre was brought to zero.
    ”Other transmission substations that were shut down by the Labour Unions include the Ganmo, Benin, Ayede, Olorunsogo, Akangba and Osogbo Transmission Substations.
    ”Some transmission lines were equally opened due to the ongoing activities of the labour unions,” she said.
    Mbah said that power generating units from different generating stations were forced to shut down some units of their generating plants.
    She said that the Jebba Generating Station was forced to shut down one of its generating units while three others in the same substation subsequently shut down on very high frequency.
    Mbah said that the sudden forced load cuts led to high frequency and system instability, which eventually shut down the national grid at 2:19 a. m.
    ”At about 3.23 am, however, TCN commenced grid recovery, using the Shiroro Substation to attempt to feed the transmission lines supplying bulk electricity to the Katampe Transmission Substation.
    ”The situation is such that the labour Union is still obstructing grid recovery nationwide.
    ”We will continue to make effort to recover and stabilise the grid to enable the restoration of normal bulk transmission of electricity to distribution load centres nationwide,”she said. (NAN)(www.nannews ng)
    COA/EEE
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    Edited by Ese E. Eniola Williams

  • NDPHC partners stakeholders to light up Agbara

     

    Electricity
    By Constance Athekame
    Abuja, June 2, 2024 (NAN) The Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) says it is partnering with other stakeholders in the electricity industry to Light Up Agbara in Ogun State.
    Mr Sanya Adejokun, Media Adviser to the Managing Director of NDPHC said this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday.
    Adejokun said that the Managing Director,  NDPHC Mr Chiedu Ugbo led other stakeholders in the electricity industry to the groundbreaking of the Light Up Agbara project.
    He said that Ugbo, who represented Vice President Kashim Shettima said that NDPHC was the catalyst as far as provision of electricity was concerned in the country.
    According to him, the  Federation has invested in NDPHC to the extent that the company has four thousand megawatts generation capacity built with people’s funds but it is grossly underutilised due to a number of factors outside its control.
    Ugbo said that in sspite the huge investment in the power sector,   Nigerians were still not getting the most benefit, saying NDPHC decided to take the lead by coming up  with the idea of Light Up Nigeria by rallying everybody in the industry together.
    “For many years, worried about what we can do to salvage the situation. I have been working with Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and then few years ago, we started partnering with Eko Electricity Distribution Company (DisCo).
     ”We did a bilateral agreement and then we signed the framework agreement and I insisted that we must go to Agbara, being the industrial cluster in sub-Saharan Africa to salvage the situation.
    ”We must provide electricity to industrial areas.“What the sector needs is the synergy by every stakeholder from gas through generation, through transmission, through distribution to end users,” he said.
    According to the managing director, the issue is to seek out the load centres like Agbara and that this is a pilot phase for the Light Up Nigeria Initiative.
    ”We brought the vice president here, who himself is leading this charge on behalf of the president to ensure that we energise businesses to enable industrial growth,” he said.
    Ugbo said that Eko DisCo was brought into the Agbara scheme because it was the owner of the franchise area while NDPHC was a generation company.
     “For our electricity to be dispatched, there must be demand and it is that demand that we are working on. That demand has to be facilitated by effective electricity transportation and that is why we brought in TCN.
    ”That is why we have Federal Government of Nigeria power company to unlock the bottlenecks in the transmission,” he said.
    Ugbo said that Federal Government of Nigeria power has taken the first step by bringing the mobile transformer to install in Agbara.
    He said that NDPHC was also working with its distribution contractors who, would do the reticulation together with Millwater to the various customers.
    Giving an update on the Light Up Nigeria project, NDPHC Executive Director, Corporate Services, Ms Nkechi Mba said that aside Agbara, the company was also working assiduously to light other parts of Nigeria.
    Mbah said that NDPHC had inaugurated the light Up South East version with Vice President Kashim Shettima leading the charge.
    ”The North East version of the project will be inaugurated in Bauchi in July,” she said
    Mba urged stakeholders in Agbara industrial cluster to bear the delay in completing the project on schedule, explaining that it was due to certain unforeseen circumstances arising from the novelty of the project.
    She also commended FGN Power Company for generously providing the mobile transformer that was inaugurated.
    ”That we are at this stage today is because the Chairman of our Board, Vice President Kashim Shettima is bringing his influence to bear on this Initiative.
    ”Agbara will soon be replicated across Nigeria. After Bauchi and Kano, we plan to be in Port Harcourt,” she said.
    Also speaking on the capacity of the company to make the Light Up Nigeria a reality, NDPHC Executive Director, Generation, Mr  Kassim Abdulahi said that they have more than enough capacity to meet up with every obligation of the initiative.
    “We have enough available power in all our power plants. We have almost 3,000 Megawatts (MW)band ready to go but we are currently dispatching less than 1,000MW”, he said.b(NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
    COA/EEE
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    Edited by Ese E. Eniola Williams

  • Electricity: GenCos urge govt, stakeholders to pay debts

    Debts
    By Constance Athekame
    Abuja, June 2, 2024 (NAN) The Power Generation Companies (GenCos), have appealed to the Federal Government and key stakeholders to settle electricity debts owned them for electricity generation to enable them remain in business.
    Retired Col. Sani Bello, the Board Chairman, Power Generation Companies said this in a statement in Abuja on Sunday.
    Bello said: ”GenCos are constrained to issue this release to draw the attention of the Federal Government and key stakeholders to the need to urgently address the issue of inadequate payment for electricity generated by them.
    ”And consumed on the national grid, which is currently threatening
    the continued operation of their power generation plants.
    ”GenCos are currently owed more than two trillion naira for power they generated, put unto the national grid, and consumed by end users.
    ”This is in addition to the more than 1.7 trillion naira funding gap created in the recent supplementary Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2024 without a designated fund to fill the gap,” he said.
    According to him, this huge debt is now greatly inhibiting GenCos ability to meet their obligations to enders, Operations and Maintenance (O&M) spare parts procurements, and employee related obligation.
    ”In the light of the severity of the issues highlighted above, the GenCos are
    requesting that immediate and expedited action is taken to prevent national
    security challenges.
     ”That may result from the failure of the GenCos to sustain steady generation of electricity of Nigerians,” he said.
    Bello said that GenCos liquidity challenges was further worsened by the various policies introduced such as the payment waterfall in the  Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), which deprioritises payment to them.
    ”The implication of this, is that GenCos only get paid a portion of their invoices of nine or 11 per cent from whatever amount is left.
    ”This is an aberration as it is a clear departure from existing terms of the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA)
    guiding the contractual relationship between GenCos and the Nigeria Buk Electricity Trading (NBET).
     ”Which NBET as buyer has contracted to purchase the available capacity as agreed under the PPA.
    Bello said that the  GenCos expectations of being settled through external support such as the World Bank Poverty Reduction Supports Operation (PSRO) had also been dampened.
    He said that this was due to other market participants’ inability to meet their respective distribution inked indicators (DLIs), enshrined in the Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP).
    He said that access to forex was another problem given that major operation and maintenance needs in the generation subsector were dollarised.
    According to him, the importance of a specialised window or stable dollar allocation for GenCos cannot be over emphasised.
    ”GenCos are of the position that there is need for a coordinated approach by all
    stakeholders in the NESi to address the liquidity issue realistically and sustainably in the power sector.
    ”So that Nigerians can have access to reliable electricity supply,” he said. (NAN)(www.nannews.ng)
    COA/EEE
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    Edited by Ese E. Eniola Williams