Ikeja Electric appeals to customers over poor power supply

The management of Ikeja Electric (IE) on Wednesday appealed to customers over the ongoing power shortage being experienced in its operational network.

Mr Felix Ofulue, Head, Corporate Communications, IE, told in Ikeja that the power shortage was being experienced across the country due to low gas supply to electricity generation companies.

Ofulue said: “We are appealing to our esteemed customers to be patient because the situation is beyond our control.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has said the gas shortage has restrained the ability of many thermal power stations to generate optimally.

”This situation is going to persist till the next few days as some of the power plants are undergoing maintenance, but after then, we are hoping that normalcy will be restored.”

He said the electricity distribution company was committed to improving its services to customers and had introduced several initiatives toward achieving the objective.

However, a group, the All Electricity Consumers Protection Forum, on Wednesday called for an overhaul of the electricity sector value chain due to epileptic power supply in the country.

Its National Coordinator, Mr Adeola Samuel-Ilori, told our correspondent that there was need to investigate the claim by TCN that the ongoing supply shortage was due to low gas supply to the thermal stations.

He said: “Nigeria is a gas producing country and we have abundance of gas yet we are told that we cannot power our thermal stations due to gas constraints.

”I think this needs to be investigated because we know in the past that these gencos were being owed huge amounts of money by TCN and the electricity distribution companies.

“So, we need to know if that is what is really responsible because as we speak, there are other manufacturing companies who are getting gas to do their production and they are not having any shortage.”

Samuel-Ilori said the majority of electricity customers who are subjected to estimated billing by the Discos would still be made to pay for services not rendered at the end of the month.

“That is why we are demanding for metering of all electricity customers, because once this is done, all the stakeholders in the value chain will sit up and find a lasting solution to the issue of power cuts,” he said.