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…as Oshiomhole gives disco 48 hours to restore light communities
The Benin Electricity Distribution (BEDC) has attributed the degenerating level of electricity supply in Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti states to low power generation received from the national grid caused by gas shortage as a result of pipeline vandalism.
A statement signed by its Chief Corporate Services Officer, Mrs. Kunbi Labiyi, quoted BEDC’s Chief State Head, Edo State, Fidelis Obishai as disclosing this during a meeting between BEDC management and Governor Adams Oshiomhole in Benin yesterday.
He said the serious drop in power generation was affecting BEDC’s ability to distribute power to customers, despite its installed capacity of 800 megawatts, stressing that what it gets as a distribution company hovers between 130 to 150 megawatts daily; hence the poor supply.
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On disconnected communities, Obishai told the governor that disconnection of any community was based on non-payment of electricity bills, adding that once such is paid, power supply would be restored immediately.
On high electricity bills to consumers, Obishai said there was a tariff review with effect from February this year approved by the regulatory agency- NERC, pointing out that the tariff regime was essentially designed to salvage the power sector and encourage continuous investments.
“BEDC has put in place a process to avoid arbitrary billing of customers be it industrial or residential and we ensure that customer complaints on billing are addressed with urgency,” he explained.
Oshiomhole, however, condemned the firm over total blackouts in many communities in the state and the habit of disconnecting large areas for individual misconducts.
He threatened to revoke the company’s C of O if his directive was not carried out within 48 hours, describing the action of the company as not only criminal, but also as economic sabotage, because of the numerous persons and businesses disconnected had been affected negatively.
