Power
A power expert, Mr Kunle Olubiyo, has called for collaboration among stakeholders in the power sector to minimise the effect of the planned power interruption in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT) on consumers.
Olubiyo, who is also the President of Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, made the call in a statement in Abuja on Tuesday.
The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) reports that the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) had announced an impending power interruption in parts of its franchise areas between Jan. 6 and Jan. 21.
Olubiyo said that the planned two weeks power outage was unacceptable to the consumer network in the FCT.
According to him, the Federal Capital Development Authority (FCDA), Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) should look for a more coordinated way of reducing the effect on consumers.
”We have received several calls from our women folks, housewives and others
complaining about the losses they will incur due to the planned outage having stockpiled perishable items in their refrigerators.
”One could imagine the cost of unscheduled power outage to our women and an average poor family struggling to cope with the prevailing global high cost of living,” he said.
He said that most of these vulnerable women could not afford the cost of fueling their generators, which would have been readily affordable before the removal of subsidies.
”With petroleum products, diesel or gas sold above N1,000, households in Abuja would require a minimum of netween N30,000 and N70,000 per day to provide alternatives sources of energy within the two weeks.
”That is a tall order and not affordable for an average home or indigent poor masses,” he said.
Olubiyo said that apart from the effect of the interruption of power supply on domestic end users, bulk users of electricity wouldalso incur huge loses.
”Manufacturers, Small, Micro , Medium and Large Scale Enterprises will also be affected by the outage,” he said.
Olubiyo said that the TCN and AEDC would have sourced for funds to build a back up transmission sub-station at the proposed new site, while the current one is still in circuits.
”Upon completion, AEDC and TCN can then string the network or cable in collaboration with FCDA, ” he said.
Olubiyo said that the project would had be designed under the Transmission and Distribution Network Expansion Developmental Projects.
He said that on completion of the relocation, 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.
He suggested that stocks of Items and line materials available from warehouses of multilateral finance developmental projects should be used for speedy completion of the project.
He listed such projects to include those of World Bank, African Development Bank, Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and the likes. (NAN)
7th January, 2025.
C.E.
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