Power generation in the country is yet to improve one week after it was reported to have fallen to 3,697MW.
This was from a peak of 5,074 MW achieved earlier in February.
This has worsened power supply, with some of the distribution companies having to appeal to consumers over the development.
In Lagos, most areas hardly have supply for up to three hours in a day.
The management of EKo Electricity Distribution Plc said the power supply instability within its network was due to inadequate bulk electricity load allocated to the company from the national grid.
This was contained in a statement issued by the Head of Corporate Communications of the company, Godwin Idemudia, and made available to the News Agency of Nigeria on Saturday in Lagos.
Idemudia said the company had repeatedly given reasons for the current power rationing and intermittent outage being experienced in areas under its coverage in the past few weeks.
Idemudia said the outages emanated from a drop in the national generation level as a result of incessant acts of vandalism on gas pipelines and transmission towers.
He added: “The situation was not limited to Eko Electricity Distribution Company coverage areas alone since the problem has to do with low generation level.
“The situation has led to acute power rationing in all areas within the company’s operational territory.”
According to the spokesman the areas worst hit by the resultant power rationing include Surulere, Lekki, Ajah, Ibeju, Mushin, Apapa, Yaba and their environs.
Idemudia appealed to customers to bear with the situation, assuring that the company was doing its best to ensure a fair and equitable distribution of electricity to all customers, pending the time there would be improvement.
He said the company’s customer help lines would be available 24 hour to receive complaints from customers and attend to the problems.
Idemudia said customers having localised faults outside the general power rationing should contact the customer care unit of the business district covering their areas or the central customer care centre at Marina.
Residents of Epe and Ikorodu Local Government Areas of Lagos State on Saturday raised concern over the epileptic power supply in the last few months and called for urgent government’s intervention.
The two communities made the call in separate interviews with the News Agency of Nigeria in Lagos.
Community leaders told NAN that the people of Epe and Ikorodu environs were not spared in the epileptic supply.
Demeji Kaka, a Chieftain of Epe Community, said the sudden drop in power supply in the community for some months now had not only affected the beauty of the areas, but also posed negative consequences on business operations.
Kaka said residents were faced with the additional search for alternative source of power to earn a living.
According to him, what is more worrisome is the imposition of high tariffs on consumers by power owners even when the energy is not readily available for use.
Sulaimon Ajenifuja, an iron welder at Aiyetoro Market, said the management of Ikeja Electricity Company had not been favourable to business operators in the community.
Ajenifuja said they are faced with estimated bills even when low power was provided.
He said consequent to that, he has resorted to using his generator for his business, lamenting that he uses at least 30 litres of fuel on daily basis.
Mulikat Sanusi, a cold room owner who deals in frozen foods, said life has not been easy with her business as she lost stock in her shop worth N150,000 due to lack of power supply.
Sanusi called for government’s intervention to stabilise power supply in the state and save the business community from the hands of exploitative managers of power, adding that it had not been easy using alternative sources of power like generators.
She said: “I pay not less than N25,000 monthly for my shop as estimated bill.
“I have been disturbing the managers of power in my area to supply me with meter, but to no avail.
“I am getting tired of estimated bills.”
Akin Adejuyigbe, the Chairman of Agbede Transformer CDA in Ikorodu, said many homes and offices in the community expend substantial part of their income on self-generation of power as a result of poor electricity supply.
Adejuyigbe said in spite of efforts by successive governments to improve on power generation and distribution in the country, power allocation to the community has remained low.
“The noise and humming of generating plants at nights and in business and public places during the day have been daily experiences every resident in Agbede have to cope with,” said the leader.
He called on the administration of President Muhammadu Buhari to muster courage in order to resolve the energy crisis in the country.
One of the residents, Alhaji Tijani Aiki, said it was unfortunate that the last administration of former President Goodluck Jonathan could not resolve the power problem in the country.
Aiki said: “Jonathan had in his campaign promises in 2011 promised to provide stable power supply for Nigerians by the year 2015 to ensure that both small and medium scale industries thrived again.
“The privatisation of the power sector had never helped in any way to hasten progress intended at ensuring adequate power supply across the country.
“Government had always attributed the poor power supply to activities of vandals of pipelines and electrical installations, without taking concrete measures to end the menace.”
Ramota Bamidele, the Iyaloja of Agbede Market, said her major concern was “paying for darkness”.
Bamidele said every month, officials of the power distribution company moved round to distribute outrageous bills without considering whether people enjoyed the light or not.
She said: “Where I live, we hardly have supply of power, but our current billing is about N6,400 per month.
:The trick they use is that a day or two to the time they will bring bill, we will have the supply.
“But after that, nobody cares.
“The worst of it is that they don’t even read the meter.”
The Kano Electricity Distribution Company has also appealed to its consumers to exercise patience over the drop in power allocation.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Public Relations Officer of the company, Muhammad Kandi, and issued to newsmen in Kano on Saturday.
It said current generation profile had descended to less than 3,697MW against the peak of 5,074MW achieved earlier in February.
“The Management of KEDCO hereby calls on all its customers not to panic as concerned authorities in the sector are working assiduously to address the problem,” the statement said.
The statement quoted the company’s Chief Technical Officer, David Omoloye, as attributing the situation to poor gas supply to generation companies in the country.
The statement added: “The DisCos are disturbed in the face of the current low power allocation.
“We want all power consumers including the organised labour and members of the media to help disseminate accurate information so as to create positive understanding of the power sector value chain.
“Last week Kano DisCo only received an average of 140 MW daily and this is inconsistent compared to the recent development in our daily allocation.
“This week, the situation became even worse, giving us little or no choice than to drop load as directed by the National Control Centre (NCC) to stabilise the system and thereby leading to load rationing.”
The statement assured customers that the companies were working to restore power supply to meet customers’ satisfaction.
NAN.
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