Consumers flay planned two-week power outage in Abuja

Electricity consumers in Abuja have condemned plans by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to keep them in darkness for two weeks.

The Nigeria Consumer Protection Network described the planned two-week outage as the height of irresponsibility, reckless and unacceptable.TCN had earlier notified the public that due to the Federal Capital Development Agency’s (FCDA) road dualisation project along the Apo axis, eight 132kV and 33kV towers would be relocated along the Kukwaba/Apo 132kV line (Outer Southern Expressway route).

The relocation work, it stated, would necessitate a planned power outage from January 6 to 20, 2025, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, which is the estimated duration for the dismantling and construction of the towers and restringing of the power cables that would enable resumption of bulk power supply to the Apo Transmission Substation from Gwagwalada Substation.

As a result, TCN hinted that there would be a rationing of electricity supply for AEDC’s customers in Kubwa, Karu, Maraba, Nyanya, Masaka, Keffi, Kukwaba and Apo Mechanic. This will also affect parts of Lugbe, Trademore Estate, Pyakasa, Sabon Lugbe, Chika and Alaita axis.

President of the network, Kola Olubiyo, stated, yesterday, that the group received calls from women complaining that everything in their refrigerators would get spoilt if the outage continued as planned.

Olubiyo described the planned two-week power outage in Abuja as the height of irresponsibility that is inconceivable, unimaginable and unacceptable.He pointed out that they received calls from their women, housewives and others, who complained bitterly about the cost of the planned outage on their condiments and stockpiles of perishable items in their refrigerators.

“There are women and housewives that have stocked their refrigerators with soup and delicacies that could ordinarily have lasted them for one month or two. One could imagine the cost of unscheduled power outages to our women and an average poor family struggling to cope with the prevailing global high cost of living.

“With petrol and diesel selling for above N1,000, most vulnerable women cannot afford to fuel their generators. By implication, every household in Abuja would require a minimum of N30,000 to N70,000 per day to provide an alternative source of energy within the two weeks of unscheduled power outages. These are tall orders and not affordable for an average home,” Olubiyo said.

According to him, the Abuja Distribution Company (DisCo) and TCN were acting in ways and manners that made them national security risks, saying they undermined the goodwill and gains recorded by the President Bola Tinubu administration while trying to deplete the political capital of his administration.

“All that we had expected is for TCN and AEDC to seek money to build a backup transmission sub-station at the proposed new site while the current one is still in the circuit. Upon completion, AEDC and TCN can then string the network/cable (132KV/ 330KV transmission network) in collaboration with the FCDA/FCT Administration. These could be designed under Transmission and Distribution Network Expansion Developmental Projects,” he stated.

While agreeing that the distribution and transmission network expansion pace has not been at par with increasing urban expansion, Olubiyo argued that putting 70 per cent of the Abuja Metropolis into darkness for two weeks showed a lack of coordination in developmental planning and there should be sanctions against the TCN and AEDC to instil sanity.

“The road project should be expanded. A new set of 330KV/132KV/33KV network and transmission transformers should be installed using the available stocks of transformers, towers and line materials from the Siemens Power Project and stocks of items and line materials available from the warehouses of Multilateral Finance Developmental Projects. The emphasis here is that the network must be designed and installed and, on completion, cable/conductors could be stringed within 72 hours as against 72 hours of unscheduled and painful prolonged power outages,” he said.