The TCN, the country’s sole transmission firm, wrote a letter to Aba Power on April 19, 2023, with reference number TCN-MO-003-APL-049-VOL2-202, directing it to pay N869210.059.58 within 30 working days, but the same day the same company wrote a letter, with reference number TCN-MO-003-APL049-VOL-202, to the Market Operator instructing it to disconnect Aba Power from the national grid from April 21, 2023.
Engineer Ben Caven, a former executive director of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and rumored to be the only person to have led the Transmission, Generation, and Engineering divisions in the defunct power parastatal, remarked, “It is strange how the two letters emanating from the same source could contradict each other.
“I want to assume that there is no malicious intent, but it is unprecedented that a letter was written on April 19, delivered to an electricity distribution company the following day, and power was then cut off to the distribution company within a few hours of that same day due to a massive N896 million debt”.
“I am upset that the action went into force on a public holiday that started a long weekend”.
“The people who issued the edict were unable to respect the feelings of Muslims who were celebrating Eid el-Fitr after 30 days of fasting”.
The managing director of Aba Power, Patrick Umeh, who once served as a commissioner with the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), disputes claims that his business has been lax in paying taxes and other levies to the government.
On the phone with journalists on the 21st of April, in the morning, he stated: “We were able to pay N50m to the Market Operator at the end of March, despite the enormous challenges that Nigerians faced between January and April as a result of the petrol shortage and the naira redesign, which, in turn, affected our customers’ ability to meet their obligations to us during this period.
We also paid the Niger Delta Power Holding Company, which provides us with energy, N500 million last month.
On February 16, 2022, Aba Power paid $26 million to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) and Interstate Electrics to purchase the Aba Ring-fenced Area, which includes nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State. However, full control of the area did not occur until six months later, when it was permitted to collect customer fees.
According to Umeh, the company was solely responsible for covering the cost of personnel salaries and electricity for a period of six months without receiving any payment.
When we increased the power supply to the ringfence from 25 megawatts to 80 megawatts, our monthly obligation to the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) climbed to over N800 million, according to Umeh, who was also an official with the Los Angeles Water and Power Corporation in the United States.
Cliff Eneh, an energy consultant in Lagos who was a senior engineer with both the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and the Texas Light and Power in the United States, said that the punitive measure against Aba Power “is absolutely unfair because the authorities know that the new distribution company has spent millions of dollars to bring the dilapidated distribution infrastructure in the Aba Ringfence to world-class, thus making Aba, the capital of indigenous Nigeria’s indigenous technology, have new 1,500 kilometers of overhead wires, four brand new substations, and three refurbished ones”.
Engr Eneh noted that despite several failures to fulfill their duties to the TCN and the MO since they were founded in November 2013, the nation’s other 11 distribution businesses have not been disconnected from the national grid.
The expert said, “It is unlikely that distribution businesses in Yola and Jos, for example, pay more than 15% of what they ought to, but they haven’t been disconnected because of the serious security concerns”.
“Hospital services and other crucial services, not to mention manufacturing industries, will be seriously impacted”.
According to Engr Eneh, “the new action by both the TCN and the MO cutting off supplies to the area appears selective” given that the Aba Ringfence was plunged into darkness between March 15 and March 18 over payments to Federal Government agencies.
He recalled that, ever since the 11 old distribution companies were privatized, the Federal Government had been generously subsidizing them, spending N120 billion in 2022 alone.
The 11 DisCos, he claimed, owe the Market Operator N70 billion but only paid N35.2 billion in the first quarter of last year.
Nevertheless, he said, “no one disconnected them from the national grid, and there were no threats to do so.”
“The continued, intolerable strain on Aba Power, which has never received a Kobo subsidy, is difficult to comprehend”.
“Disabling Aba Power will worsen the situation for everyone, including the TCN and the MO, who are no longer able to profit from the majority of Abia State.”
In light of the severe economic difficulties facing the nation, the MD of Aba Power requested for the company to be given some time to settle its debt with the TCN and the MO.
“We will commission the Geometric Power plant in Aba very soon,” he said, “from which we will obtain our own electricity and supply our customers with reliable, high-quality electricity at competitive prices.”
