Electricity Customers Urge FirstPower Electricity To Address Poor Supply In Anambra
Electricity consumers in Awka, the capital town of Anambra and environs have lamented what they described as the period of lowest power supply.
They said power supply in Anambra took a nosedive recently and called on FirstPower Electricity Distribution Company (FPEDC) which obtained an interim license to distribute power in the state late November to rise to the occasion .
Chief Osita Obi, Coordinator of Electricity Consumers Right Network (ECRN) in Anambra said the level of supply in the state in recent times was unacceptable.
Obi, who described electricity as a fundamental right, called on the Federal Government to address the problem of generation and transmission with a view to giving the masses optimal services.
The Activist said whichever company was directly involved in the supply of power situation where customers including those in Band A no longer had up to six hours of supply in a day would no longer be tolerated
He said this was not time to shift blame between the parent EEDC and the subsidiary FirstPower but what was needed for customers to have supply.
“Whoever is concerned must give us electricity, there is no docility from electricity consumers again.
“If the company in charge does not have the capacity to do this business, they should relinquish the operating licence, we can not continue this way.
“Let them give us electricity or get out of the way.
“Electricity consumers have the right to know what is going on in the supply and distribution system. EEDC and First Power should talk to us.
“Consumers hope the billing this period will match the current supply situation,” he said.
In a reaction, FirstPower Electricity Distribution Company (FPEDC), the company in charge of power distribution in Anambra blamed the poor power supply in parts of the state on drop in supply from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Mr Ikechukwu Okafor, Managing Director of FirstPower said the national generation has declined due to gas supply constraints and that supply from TCN to the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) its parent company had consequently dropped.
He said the TCN was managing allocations but the allocation pattern created a was not in alignment with demand profiles thereby unfairly exposing Distribution Companies to reputational and performance distortions.
According to him, during off-peak periods, particularly at night when our demand is naturally low, higher megawatt allocations are issued despite the obvious inability of DISCOs to absorb them.
“Conversely, as demand rises in the morning and during peak hours, allocations are reduced and curtailments are introduced.
“This practice artificially improves the reported average allocation figures while creating a misleading impression that DISCOs are failing to take up their allocated load.
“Addressing this issue requires a coordinated and unified response from DISCOs to prevent the continuation of this practice and to ensure that generation and power allocation statistics accurately refl
ect operational realities,” he said
