Almost two months after the other 11 electricity distribution firms in Nigeria increased their tariff for Band A customers due to the prevailing economic situation in the country, Aba Power Ltd has adjusted its tariff.

Its managing director, Ugo Opiegbe, confirmed to newsmen in a telephone interview this morning that Band A Maximum Demand (MD) customers, who receive power for at least 20 hours daily, will now pay between N114.66 and N117.1 per kilowatt hour (KWh), from N109.79 KWh.

For non-MD customers in Band A, their tariff is even lower, pegged at N106.56/kWh.

“It is still the lowest in the country for that category of customers”, Opiegbe declared, contrasting it with rates charged by other electricity firms.

The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had on April 3, 2024, permitted the DisCos to increase their tariff from N66KWh to N225KWh for Band A customers who are said to make up 15% of electricity users. President Bola Tinubu in early May ordered its reduction to N206.80KWh.

“Our Band A MD customers are primarily industrialists who are unfortunately experiencing serious headwinds, and it is because of them that Professor Bart Nnaji, the founder and chairman of the Geometric Power Group, established the 188-MW gas-fired plant in the Osisioma Industrial Layout of Aba”, Opiegbe noted.

Professor Nnaji, a former Minister of Power, was a distinguished professor of manufacturing engineering in the United States before relocating to Nigeria to set up the Aba Independent Power Project, Nigeria’s only integrated electricity group which Vice President Kashim Shettima commissioned on February 26 on behalf of President Bola Tinubu.

The Southeast zone of the Electricity Consumers Association of Nigeria (ECAN) had three weeks ago commended Aba Power, Nigeria’s DisCo which commenced operations only in September 2022, for retaining the 2023 approved tariff structure in nine of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in Abia where it supplies electricity.

“Yet, this is the only DisCo in the nation that has not benefitted from the trillions of naira paid to others in subsidy since the privatization of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) assets in November 2013”, observed the ECAN Southeast zonal chairman, Engineer Joe Ubani, and the secretary, Comrade Chris Okpara.

Agreeing with the AECN’s position, Engineer Cliff Eneh, a former senior manager with the defunct National Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (NEPA), who used to work with the Texas Power and Light Corporation in the United States, described both Professor Nnaji and Geometric Power as “hugely self-sacrificing”.

He added: “Frankly, they behave like people in a vocation whose mission is to provide affordable, quality, and constant power to the citizens, despite all they have gone through in the last 20 years”.

“Though Aba Power Electricity (APLE) Limited began commercial operations only in September 2022, its business model has become exemplary”, the Southeast ECAN zonal chairman, Engineer Joe Ubani, and the secretary, Comrade Chris Okpara, said in a statement in Enugu this morning.

“For a new DisCo to continue with the 2023 rate for all customers the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has approved a new significant tariff regime, despite the economic vicissitudes Nigeria has been going through, is nothing short of extraordinary patriotism and deserves commendation by all and sundry”.

NERC had on April 1, 2024, approved an increase from N68 per kilowatt hour (kWh) to N225 kWh, though it later reduced it to N206.8 kWh last week following severe public criticisms.

According to ECAN, Aba Power has retained the 2023 rate, which is about half of the new N206.8kWh tariff, because of its consideration for its customers, especially manufacturers who have been facing various challenges in their businesses of late.

“Only a firm with a high sense of corporate social responsibility”, declared the electricity consumers association, “can have such consideration.

“Even Aba Power has its own challenges, having waited for 20 years to complete a three-year project because of enormous vested interests.

“Yet, the utility has the presence of mind to consider the interests of industrialists so that they can pass the benefits to the Nigerian people in these trying times”.

It described the costs that Aba Power chose to bear for continuing with the old tariff as enormous, saying it has run into hundreds of millions of naira already.

“This is immensely sacrificial”, it added.

ECAN has also thanked Aba Power for what it called its swift response to reports from concerned consumers that some persons who claim to be on the staff of the company have been collecting money from customers to install a mechanism to bypass their meters or make the meters capture only a fraction of energy consumed every month.

The association noted that once it brought the reports to the utility’s management, “they responded impressively.

“We are satisfied that the ongoing investigation is thorough, and the suspects are not really on the Aba Power staff, but may be working for various firms contracted to install some 200,000 prepaid smart meters free of charge in nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State serviced by Aba Power”.

Some unnamed persons were recently reported to be collecting N30,000 each from customers after installing prepaid meters so that the consumers would pay a small amount no matter the quantum of electricity they enjoy every month.

Geometric Power will commission the 141MW Aba Integrated Power Plant and Aba IPP will hit 188MW post-commissioning.

It is a private investment led by Bart Nnaji, with credit to Ngozi Okonkwo-Iweala.

Professor Bart Nnaji, a globally respected academic engineer in the United Staetes, who has been Nigeria’s Minister of Science and Technology and later Minister of Power disclosed that he chose to cite Geometric Power in Aba to catalyse Aba’s development as the headquarters of indigenous technology and manufacturing, noting that with “constant, quality and affordable electricity soon, the cost of doing business in Abia State will reduce significantly and this will, in turn, impact on the national economy.”

The company had scheduled supplies to commercial customers 13 days after commissioning in line with technical protocols, but, according to sources, its chairman, Professor Bart Nnaji who is a former Minister of Power, has directed the utility’s engineers to provide “power to the people without fail this weekend”.

The Geometric Power 188 Megawatt thermal plant and Aba Power meant to distribute electricity to nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State were commissioned last Monday by Vice President Kassim Shettima on behalf of President Bola Tinubu in the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba, Abia, State, 24 hours after the first turbine was turned on.

“Non-critical technical procedures must be eliminated,” the Geometric Power founder told his team of local and foreign engineers, according to three highly-placed officials who do not want their names because they were not authorised to speak to the media on this matter.

Officials of the National Control Centre (NCC) at Oshogbo in Osun State were billed to inspect the Geometric Power facility next week as one of the technical requirements, but they will now arrive this week, according to the sources who disclosed that “Nnaji, a globally recognized engineering professor, is pulling all the strings and using his network”.

READ ALSO:

Obi stood by us in Geometric Power Project for many years, says Nnaji

When one of Geometric Power’s three turbines built by General Electric of the United States goes into commercial operations this weekend, it will supply 47MW, which is almost double the 25MW the Aba Metropolis and the environs currently receive from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC) through the national grid, explained Cliff Eneh, an energy consultant in Lagos who used to be a senior engineer with the National Power Authority (NEPA) after working for the Texas Power and Light Company in the United States.

The second turbine, said Eneh, “will increase power supply to the Aba Ring-fenced Area to 94MW, “thereby meeting Aba energy requirements for now and stabilising power supply to the area.

“Nigeria needs a number of generation and distribution firms with state-of-the-art facilities like Geometric Power, which is an integrated electricity group because it has both generating and distributing subsidiaries.”

Neimeth Pharmaceuticals Plc, based in Lagos, is one of the big firms which have announced their intentions to relocate their manufacturing plants to Aba when electricity improves substantially in the industrial city.

Poor power supply, which leads to enormous and costly self-generation, accounts for substantial percentage of high production cost in Nigeria.

Power Minister Adebayo Adelabu disclosed at the commissioning of Geometric Power facilities on Monday that the Federal Government would be studying the performance of Geometric Power closely with a view to making it a business model for the development of the beleaguered Nigerian power sector.

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has reduced electricity supply to the Aba Ring-fenced Area that compromises nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State by more than 50%.

According to sources close to Aba Power which serves the nine LGAs but who asked for anonymity in the media because they are not authorized to speak to the press on the issue, the reduction started last week, with supplies dropping from 25 Megawatts to 10MW without any official explanation or apology.

The Aba Power Managing Director, Patrick Umeh, confirmed the drastic reduction in a brief telephone conversation with journalists this afternoon but declined further comment because “I am in Lagos right now attending a critical meeting of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)”, where he once served as the Commissioner for Market Rates, Market and Competition.

Aba, Nigeria’s centre of indigenous technology and local manufacturing, needs 100MW to achieve electricity stability, according to Chief Adolphus Udeigbo, President General of the 22,00O -member Aba Landlords Protection and Development Association (ALPADA).

“We have been complaining bitterly that the 25MW from the NDPHC is grossly inadequate, only to have it cut further at a time of acute heat and unprecedented economic crisis”, the ALPADA leader said.

“It’s so painful that Aba people couldn’t watch some of the matches at the just concluded African Nations Cup Competition in Cote d’Ivoire because of the meagre supplies”.

Chief Udeigbo described the significant cut as shocking because the Geometric Power group, which owns Aba Power, “has just paid N500m to one of the Federal Government’s agencies for supplies”.

Bob Chukwueke, an Aba-based legal consultant, told journalists this morning: “This is why we can’t wait for the 181MW Geometric Power plant at the Osisioma Industrial Layout in Aba to get commissioned so that we will be freed the embarrassing performance of the nation’s electricity networks”.

There are unconfirmed reports that the Geometric Power plant may be commissioned before the end of this month.

An engineer working at the TCN confided in our correspondent today that his company diverted 15MW from the 25MW supplied to the Aba Ring-fenced Area to other parts of Nigeria to help mitigate the worsening energy crisis throughout the nation.

The engineer, who did not want his name disclosed for fear of repercussions, revealed that gas-producing firms have in the last few weeks reduced their supplies to power generation companies because of the huge amounts owed for previous supplies.

Eighty per cent of Nigeria’s electricity output is from thermal power plants, so reduced gas supplies are bound to have a serious impact throughout the country.

As though to worsen the country’s power crisis, the three hydro plants at Shiroro, Jebba, and Kainji, all in Niger State, are performing suboptimally now because of the dry season.

“It is a pity that Nigeria has continued to suffer water management problems at the dams”, stated Matthew Abiodun, a retired engineer with the Kainji power station, Nigeria’s biggest hydropower plant which was built in 1968.

The transmission network has also been in poor shape, Abiodun added.

“It is old, poorly maintained and so fragile”, he told a meeting of engineers in Lagos recently.

“It collapses easily, and it is worsening by the month”.

There is hardly any month there is no complete system collapse, meaning nationwide blackout”.

The company, Nigeria’s 12th electricity distribution utility which began operations in September 2022, has already bought 20 transformers for testing, according to Patrick Umeh, its managing director, in a circular to the staff released this morning.

“Once we confirm in the next couple of weeks or months their technical integrity”, continued Umeh, a former commissioner with the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), “we will order 50 more transformers in the first instance”.

It is reliably gathered that Aba Power paid Danelec Ltd, based in Port Harcourt, Rivers State, N10,497,375 for each of 10 500KV/11 distribution transformers with 100% copper winding and N10,560,800 per unit of the 10 500/33KV transformers, bringing the total amount to N139,825,228, including a value-added tax of N4738089.38.

“We will commission these 20 distribution transformers immediately because there are a lot of old, faulty, and poorly maintained transformers in the system blogger outreach services at Instalinko, many of them bought well over 30 years ago”, he stated.

Experts say that while the Nigerian government has over the decades focused on power generation and transmission in the country, little attention is paid to the distribution segment in the electricity value chain.

Distribution companies supply electricity directly to homes, offices and factories.

“The consequence is the very poor state of the distribution network”, noted Cliff Eneh, a former senior manager with the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), who was also an engineer with Texas Power and Light in the United States.

Engineer Eneh explained the poor condition of the distribution network is responsible for why the public electricity supply cannot power many machines, equipment, and even air conditioning systems.

Umeh disclosed that his company’s policy to use only Nigerian-made transformers to help address the crisis in the distribution network came from the founder and chairman of the Geometric Power group, Professor Bart Nnaji, a former Minister of Power who had earlier headed the Ministry of Science and Technology.

“Professor Nnaji, an erstwhile Director of the United States National Science Foundation-endowed Centre for e-Design in the University of Pittsburgh, recognises a radical improvement in local content in critical sectors is a most effective way to transfer technology to our people, enhance indigenous capital formation and create an entrepreneurial culture in Nigeria,” he said.

He also confirmed reports that Aba Power is in talks with local manufacturers of feeder pillars to select the best among their products to boost electricity supply.

A nationwide electric power has occurred.

According to sources at the National Control Centre at Oshogbo in Osun State who did not want their names mentioned in the media because they are not authorised to speak to the public, the national grid collapsed at 13.49 pm.

The sources provided no information on the cause of the system failure or when power is expected to be restored.

Meanwhile, Aba Power Ltd has notified consumers in its ring-fenced area covering nine local government areas in Abia State it services of the development.

Apologising for the blackout, the utility firm, Nigeria’s 12th distribution company, pledged to resume power supply once the “problem is sorted out”.

In a statement signed by Patrick Umeh, the Aba Power Managing Director who used to be a commissioner with the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC),  the company said “The NCC engineers are sparing no effort to restore electricity throughout the country as soon as possible”.

All meters across the globe will cease to be useful to their owners from November 24 2024 if they fail to migrate to a new system in a phenomenon industry experts call Token Identifier (TID) Rollover.

TID is a number that represents the time that has elapsed since the base date of 1993, according to Cliff Eneh, a former senior manager with the defunct Power Holding Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) who is now both an energy consultant and academic in Lagos.

Eneh, also a former senior manager with Texas Power and Light in the United States, explains that “the TID prevents the use of meter tokens more than once, and so from November 24 2024 the TID in every newly generated token will restart at zero in what is called TID Rollover”.

In a letter to Aba Power customers this morning signed by the utility’s Managing Director, Patrick Umeh, the firm stated that it is beginning the massive public enlightenment campaign a whole year before the disruptive change “we do not want any of our numerous customers to be left behind and consequently suffer the inconvenience of his or her meter becoming obsolete from November 24, next year.

“We are beginning the massive campaign on November 15 2023 to enable our customers to avoid last-minute rush and all the associated problems”.

Umeh, an erstwhile executive with the Los Angeles Water and Power Corporation in the United States before joining the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) as the Commissioner in charge of Markets, Market Rates and Competition, said that every prepaid meter must undergo a key change and memory reset before November 24, 2024.

He added that the changes would be carried at no cost to customers in Aba.

The electricity boss stated that Aba Power has created a website to enable customers to make the changes themselves, giving the website address as abapower.com/tid-tokens.

He advised those who may not be able to make the necessary changes on the website to visit any of the company’s offices for help or to invite the staff to their place to assist them in migrating to the new TID.

Umeh also counselled all customers to load all purchased tokens before upgrading their meters.

Meanwhile, the 200,000-strong Aba Landlords Protection and Development Association (ALPADA) has lauded Aba Power for the early enlightenment campaign on meter upgrades.

“This is a fundamental change in the use of a key utility in the world, and it is just proactive of Aba Power to start this campaign early enough”, declared the ALPADA President General, Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo, in a statement.

“One year is enough time for those in the Aba Metropolis and environs serviced by Aba Power Ltd to change to a new system without difficulties.

Chief Udeigbo pledged that his association “will be in the forefront to get both landlords and tenants, including businesses, to start immediately to migrate to the new system”.

Eight days after the collapse of one of its main feeders in Aba, Abia State, which resulted in a weeklong blackout in some key places in the foremost Southeast industrial city, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has restored power to these places.

The restoration was done yesterday, according to a TCN engineer in Aba who was part of the team but requested to be anonymous because he was not authorised to the media on the development.

The blackout lasted so long because the circuit safety breaker at the Aba Overhead Feeder which failed and caused utter darkness in some areas in Aba and environs was not repairable, according to the engineer, who revealed it was replaced completely.

A circuit breaker is used to switch on and off a feeder line.

“It is a pity that this essential component of the Aba Overhead Feeder was allowed to be used for so long and was, in addition, poorly maintained”, stated another member of the technical team that battled the problem but craved for anonymity because he was not permitted to speak to the public on the issue.

“Very poor maintenance is really the situation of the entire transmission network in Nigeria, which is a Federal Government monopoly”, noted Cliff Eneh, a power consultant in Lagos who is a former manager with the defunct National Electric Power Authority (NEPA), after years with the Texas Power and Light in Dallas, United States, as an engineer.

“The transmission network is old, poorly maintained, fragile, and fails frequently when a certain amount of load is placed on it”.

The Aba Overhead Feeder serves six other feeders in Aba and surrounding communities, including Okigwe Road which hosts a number of manufacturing firms. It also serves a number of big hotels.

Patrick Umeh, the Aba Power Managing Director, told select journalists on the phone this morning that his firm deeply regretted the long blackout because it affected “some of our most outstanding customers who play critical roles in national economic development.

“That’s why we had to go out of our way to assist the TCN to fix the problem immediately by assigning some of our best engineers to work with them day and night without cost”.

One of the TCN engineers who had earlier spoken to our correspondent confirmed that Aba Power engineers worked closely with their team.

If not for the involvement of Aba Power engineers, he explained, the restoration would have taken at least two weeks rather than a week because of the time it takes the TCN, a government organisation, to procure new equipment, install and commission it .

“Even though ours is a Federal Government enterprise and Aba Power is a private sector operator, the synergy between Aba Power and the TCN is commendable and I urge other electricity utilities in the country to emulate this relationship”, said the TCN official.

“ All of us in the power sector, whether in the private or public sector, are driven by one mission: to make power available to all Nigerian people, power that is reliable, safe, and affordable”.

Prof Nnaji, Chairman of Geometric Power, Alaoji, Abia State, who spoke on Sunday, July 23, 2023, said Governor Otti’s credentials show a lot of promises.

“The way government works is that it works with the private sector to make things happen in any clime and that’s what we forsee here.With the Governor’s background and what we’re doing here, in the state, we’re very, very confident that things would significantly get better for Abia State,” Nnaji, a world class engineer, affirmed.

The former Minister, who was in Nvosi, Isialangwa South, country home of the Governor, said Dr. Otti has been very much engaged in ensuring that Geometric Power comes on stream.

He said the power plant will begin power generation from its plant within the next two months.

“So, we’re expecting that once we have gas, which will be in the next month or two, we will be able to power Aba, that is, from our own power plant.

“Right now, we’re buying power from the National Grid, that is why power is not reliable yet and so, we’ll like to ask our citizens of Aba to bear with us that we’re getting there. We’re pretty much there.

“The turbines to power the electricity plant which were taken abroad for maintenance have been brought back to the plant and reinstalled.

“We’re now working with the NNPC to resolve the issue of gas supply to the plant,” Nnaji, who came with a team of his management to brief Governor Otti on progress made, said.

He said consumers are going to get the power at a regulated price set by the regulator, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).

Also on the team were the Managing Director/CEO of Niger Delta Power Holding Corporation, NDPHC, Chiedu Ugbo and other senior management staff of NDPHC.
Kazie Uko