Less than 48 hours after Aba Power, Nigeria’s newest electricity distribution company (DisCo), assured electricity consumers in the Aba Ringfence, comprising nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State, of its readiness to start supplying areas in its coverage area affected by the ongoing maintenance of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) facilities in the state, it has made good its pledge, according to its brand and communication manager, Edise Ekong.
“The good news is that we have kept our word”, declared Ekong this morning in a statement.
“The better news is that we are now supplying more power to communities, businesses, and households in our ringfence, making the TCN maintenance of its facilities more or less a blessing in disguise for our customers”.
Following the one-week maintenance which began on Monday, Aba Power, Nigeria’s 12th DisCo, would not be able to receive bulk electricity from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) from 9 am to 5 pm daily, a development that put several communities in darkness the first day.
Ekong attributed the outage in places like Ogbor Hill to TCN’s failure to respond early enough to Aba Power’s request to start supplying power from the Geometric Power’s 188MW gas-fired power plant in the Osisioma Industrial Zone in Aba.
“We are glad that when the TCN eventually granted us permission the next day to start supplying power to the affected areas, we not only recovered the lost supplies but are now giving the Aba people more electricity than before the repairs and maintenance began”, the communication manager disclosed.
He praised the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its partner, Heirs Energies, in the Oil Mining Licence (OML) 17 joint venture at Owaza in Ukwa West LGA of Abia State for acceding to the Geometric Power Plant’s request for more gas, which made the plant start firing another 47MW General Electric (GE) turbine immediately.
He added: “We still receive supplies from the NDPHC through the TCN between 5 pm and 8 am daily, hence more electricity to all parts of the Aba Ringfence except areas with special problems like vandalism and failed, obsolete, and unserviceable machines which are now being replaced”.
Ekong revealed that his firm is building special lines for big manufacturing companies like the Nigerian Breweries and Seven-Up Bottling plc.
“Once we commission the Factory, Ogbor Hill, and Owerrenta lines this month and next, the industries in Aba will experience drastically reduced production costs because they will no longer have cause to self-generate electricity, one of the most significant contributors to high business cost in Nigeria”, he stated.
Meanwhile, a mechanical engineer and notable electricity consultant in Abuja, Dike Ejike, has advised other electricity firms in the country, especially DisCos, to borrow a leaf from the Geometric Power Group and provide “constant, quality, safe, and affordable electricity”.
DisCos in particular, he declared in a statement today, “must invest substantially in the business before expecting a profit.
“It is concerning that most of those who emerged as the core investors in the 11 DisCos created out of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) did not know anything about the power business, nor did they have the technical or commercial competence.
“They merely used their government connections in 2013 to grab our collective patrimony, thus the ongoing crisis in the electric power sector. They need to learn from Aba Power”.
