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By Iheanyi Chukwudi
Aba Power Electric, Nigeria’s 12th electricity distribution company (DisCo), is said to have started losing about 50MW daily following the
ongoing scheduled one-week maintenance of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) facilities in Abia State.
Industry sources said said the loss occurs from 9 am to 5 pm.
However, the DisCo assured on Monday that it is doing everything within its power to ensure that power is restored today to most of the areas affected by the outage.
The Aba Power Brand and Communication manager, Edise Ekong, in a note to his team members, “If the TCN had responded to our letter seeking permission to provide these areas with electricity generated from the 188megawatt Geometric Power Plant in the Osisioma Industrial Zone of Aba, areas like Opobo Road, Obingwa, Ikot Ekpene Road, Ukwa West, and East, among others, would not have been experiencing this level of outage.
If the TCN replies to our letter even right now, we will restore electricity to most of these areas within minutes."
Other areas affected by the blackout include Aba City Centre, Ogbor Hill, Isiala Ngwa Local Government Area, Waterside, Umuode, and Ugwunagbo.
Feeling for the customers, Ekong said, “We apologise profoundly to our numerous customers for the delay in communications between the TCN and Aba Power which caused this outage, especially in this hot weather.
Aba Power and its parent company, Geometric Power, have acted as proactively as possible."
Industry sources disclosed that though the Geometric Power Plant has enough capacity to generate and distribute the 100MW required in the Aba Ringfence which comprises nine of the 19 LGAs in Abia State, it imports electricity from the Niger Delta Power Holding Company of Nigeria (NDPHC) due to insufficient gas supply from the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPCL) and its business partner.
The sources further revealed that Aba Power pays over two billion naira (N2bn) monthly to the NDPHC which supplies electricity to Aba Power through the TCN.
Meanwhile, Aba Power Managing Director, Ugo Opiegbe, recently disclosed that the Geometric Power Group is making an arrangement to obtain more gas supplies.
He said, “Once we begin to receive more supplies to run our gas turbines, we will become more autonomous, that is, less dependent on the external environment, with all its caprices and volatilities.
For now, we will continue to work closely with other electricity organizations in the interests of not just our customers in the Aba Ringfence but also the entire Nigerian people who benefit directly or indirectly from our work in Aba, the heart of Nigeria’s Indigenous manufacturing."
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