Recently, the power outages which has jeopardise the efforts of business and government in ensuring the nation’s economy is rebuilt, the Minister of Power, Adebyo Adelabu and Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) gave divergent reasons for continuous power outages in homes and offices.
While the minister said it is due to negligence, DisCos blame it all on low generation, who to believe now?
Adelabu urged the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and DisCos to improve power supply to consumers.
He wondered why power supply which was stable in December suddenly dipped.
According to him, negligence and not sabotage of equipment is responsible for outages.
He spoke after meeting with officials of TCN, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC).
“It seems you people have not bought into the (prescribed) solutions. November/December power supply improved across the nation that we were celebrating.
“We entered the year, everything changed. It is not sabotage but sheer negligence,” Baba Mustafa, the ministry’s Director of Distribution, quoted the minister as saying.
Adelabu, according to Mustafa, challenged them to identify what led to the decline in power supply and to take advantage of low hanging fruits in their franchise areas to improve distribution in the next few weeks.
“At the meeting, we identified the low-hanging fruits that when utilised can lead to improved power supply. The DisCos, especially, have agreed to take advantage of them (hanging fruits) to improve power supply in the next couple of weeks.
“We have been given a marching order. And those problems that jeopardise the supply of power, especially in Abuja or reduce the supply will be addressed. People will see an improvement.”
IBEDC Chief Executive Officer Kingsley Achife said his firm and the AEDC gave themselves about three to six months to identify the easiest ways in the areas to deliver power to the customers.
He said: “ We have given ourselves a timeline of about a quarter: three to six months for each person to bring up the low hanging fruits in his areas and solve it and then work cooperatively with them to ensure there is seamless flow of customers in those areas, especially the areas which the complaints are coming from.”
Achife pointed out that low generation had been responsible for the outages currently been experienced by consumers.
He said the only way to address the challenge was for the DisCos to work in partnership with the TCN.
He added: “We have had a candid discussion and look without blaming anybody for the various challenges we have in our networks.
“ And from these challenges, we have been able to reach one conclusion. One way to solve it is to work together in partnership with our TCN partner, which is the main institution that gives us most of the power to distribute.
(Nation)