Each session provided clarity on the economic factors driving the tariff review, including currency fluctuations and rising gas prices. APL Electric also addressed customer inquiries on metering, transformer maintenance, and service reliability. To maximize participation, APL Electric ran announcements on local radio, social media platforms, and in print media.

Feedback from attendees included appreciation for APL Electric’s transparent approach and commitment to maintaining reliable service. Customers expressed understanding for the rationale behind the review but urged APLE to consider the current economic challenges faced by customers. These engagements underscored APL Electric’s dedication to proactive, customer-focused service and transparency in decision-making processes affecting service and cost.

“Much as our stakeholders are satisfied with our speed since we rolled out the programme”, Aba Power managing director, Ugo Opiegbe, told select journalists in Aba today, “we will do much more in the next six months and achieve a far greater target after that”.

It is estimated that meter installation for some 200,000 registered customers in the Aba Ring-fenced Area will cost at least N32 billion.

Aba Power commenced commercial operations in September 2022 and provides electricity to nine of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) in Abia State.

To reduce the financial burden on the power distribution company, the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) directed it to work in conjunction with meter vending companies which now charge customers between  N129,000 and N147,640.01 for a single-phase meter and N227,207.76 and N241,875 for a three-phase meter, from N88,124 and N154,624 for single-phase and three-phase meters, respectively.

“We regret these increases in these difficult times for the Nigerian people, but they are inevitable because of the depreciating value of the naira against the dollar”, Opiegbe explained.

“The good news is that the customers will recoup the payments over 10 years through electricity credit”.

The power utility executive disclosed that Aba Power is currently working with two meter vendors., though it is considering increasing the number as soon as possible to end the practice of estimated meter readings completely.

“Estimated bills are a no-no to us because it does not encourage accountability and transparency”, Opiegbe stated.

“They do not give confidence to our customers, so they cannot be satisfied”.

He revealed that some of the vendors Aba Power negotiated earlier but couldn’t hire because of issues of quality and integrity may be engaged now because they have made amends and “are willing to meet our standards, which must be international”.

There are unconfirmed reports that some agents of the vending companies were illegally charging money to individuals and businesses. The Aba Power MD declined to comment on the allegation.

The utility is currently working with Holley Metering Ltd and the KAYZ Consortium to install smart prepaid meters to all businesses and individuals in its coverage area.

The Aba Power MD said that his company has 31 feeders, making it difficult to provide smart prepaid meters to the people on all the feeders simultaneously.

“We are providing prepaid meters feeder by feeder”, he stated.

“We have covered four feeders in the last six months, namely, Aba Township, Aba East, Ehi Road, and the World Bank.

“We are about to start on the fifth feeder, and our chairman, Professor Bart Nnaji, has asked us always to prioritize manufacturing firms because they are the foremost group that brought Geometric Power to Aba, a key industrial city.

“We give them priority so that they can reduce the cost of doing of doing business, which will, in turn, make their products more affordable and thus benefit the common man”.

Dike Ejike, an engineer and electricity consultant in Enugu, commended Aba Power for giving priority to industrialists.

“Manufacturers are going through a rough phase in Nigeria, and they must be encouraged to retain their staff, otherwise their collapse will have a cataclysmic effect on not just the economy but Nigerian society as a whole”.  

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.

Power supply has been disrupted in parts of the nine local government areas in Abia State serviced by Aba Power, it has been learnt.

The problem began late last week and may continue till the end of today (Monday).

The disruption is a result of what an insider at the Nigerian National Petroleum Company (NNPC) Limited called gas logistics issues.

The engineer didn’t explain the nature of gas issues because he isn’t authorised to speak to the media on the matter.

However, it is understood that the gas issues have to do with the ongoing repairs of a gas pipeline in Rivers State.

“We swung into action immediately we received a status report on the valve because we understand the very delicate nature of the rupture, apart from the fact that we don’t want the people of Aba, a major industrial and commercial city, to be without power for long”, the NNPCL engineer explained.

Sources at Aba Power informed our correspondent that many parts of the Aba Ring-fenced Area still receive electricity because the distribution company “is now importing power from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC)”.

The sources, who asked not to be named in the media because they didn’t have the firm’s mandate to grant a press interview, stated that “Aba Power is paying an unbelievable amount, over N2 billion, for only 25 megawatts just to ensure that Aba people run their business as much as possible”.

The sources did not state with certainty when the repairs would be concluded, but it is most likely to be “anytime from now because of the immense pressure from” from the Geometric Power Group, which owns Aba Power.

The communication consultant to Aba Power, C. Don Adinuba, told correspondents that he had just landed in Lagos and had and had not been briefed on new developments in the office or in the field. He referred correspondents to the Aba Power acting managing director, Ugo Opiegbe.

Our attempt to speak Opiegbe before filing this report failed.

“I am in the church. Please, call back later, “he said on the phone.

He gave the same reply an hour later.

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”.

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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”.