Eko Disco loses N2.5b monthly to gas-to-power challenges

Eko Electricity Distribution Company Plc (EKEDP) is losing about N2.5 billion monthly to the inability of the generation company to generate electricity in the country.

The company’s monthly cash inflow has therefore dropped from N4 billion to N 1.5 billion.

EKEDP Chief Executive Officer, Oladele Amoda, said at a media briefing in Lagos that the company usually generated above N4 billion monthly but it had dropped to N1.5 billion.

“The drastic drop in power supply within our network has affected the company’s operation deeply.It has also impacted on the revenue and business activities of the company significantly, “he said.

He said that the shortfall had adversely impacted on the ability of the company to make capital investment in metering, network expansion, equipment rehabilitation and replacement that were critical to service delivery.

“This is a cash crisis that threatens to completely undermine the electricity value chain and ability to continue to serve consumers,” he said.

Amoda said that Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) debts, including interest, now stood at N93 billion.

He said the industry could not survive with this in addition to the dearth of foreign exchange.

Amoda added that shortage of foreign exchange was also contributing negatively to aggregate industry performance.

“The ability of the industry to meet its service delivery obligation is severely constrained by lack of access to foreign exchange,” he said.

He also said that vandalism of gas pipelines had led to massive drop in power generation.

“Therefore, distribution companies should not be blamed for poor power supply because we cannot give what we don’t have’,” he said.

Amoda said that it had secured additional 160 megawatts of electricity to augment its allocation from the national grid.

He said that the company had entered into bilateral agreements with Egbin Power Plc and Paras Energy & Natural Resources Development Limited for effective electricity supply within its network.

He said that the company was also discussing with other firms for more embedded and captive power purchase.

Amoda said the company voted N50 billion to procure smart meters to realise its three-year metering programme for over 400,000 customers.

He said that 7,500 Maximum Demand (MD) meters and 50,000 non-MD were acquired and installation of the meters had begun.

Amoda said about $9.7 million was spent on purchase of the MD meters while N2.8 billion was spent on non-MD meters, adding that about N5 billion had been spent on the MD and non-MD meters.

“These meters both for MD and non-MD constitute only the first phase of our metering plan that will see all 400,000 customers metered free of charge,“he said.

“Because of our belief in contributing meaningfully to the local economy, we have procured a larger portion of these meters from local meter manufacturers

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