16 September 2013, Kaduna – Alhaji Mohammed Idris, the Managing Director, Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, KEDCO, says electricity supply to consumers in Kaduna, Zamfara, Kebbi and Sokoto states will be doubled in the next six months.
Idris gave the assurance on Monday when he visited the North-West Zonal office of the News Agency of Nigeria, NAN, in Kaduna.
“In the next six months, the result of our supply will be different. For customers getting a minimum of 20 hours supply, we intend to make sure those customers have uninterrupted supply.
“If you are getting 10 hours you will get 15 hours, if you are getting five hours you will get 10 hours of electricity supply.”
Idris said about 200 megawatts of electricity would be added into the system as soon as work was completed on the various power projects in the area.
He said apart from the Gurara and Kaduna power plants, three companies from Denmark, Germany and Canada were also handling various projects in the area.
According to Idris, once the projects are completed, it will raise electricity supply to the four states to over 400 megawatts, far above the over 250 megawatts presently required.
“If we have a generating capacity of up to 400 megawatts of power, it means that even the suppressed demand of customers would be met, and I believe the company will achieve the target,”, he said.
According to the KEDCO boss, 18 National Integrated Power Projects, NIPP, in the area are also coming on stream soon to further enhance power supply to customers.
He listed some of the sites for the NIPP projects as Yauri in Kebbi, Sokoto and Talatar Mafara in Sokoto State, as well as Hanwa-Zaria and Kagoro in Kaduna State.
Idris said that similar projects were ongoing at Air Force Base, Angwan Dosa, Constitution road, Gonin Gora, Narayi, Mother Cat and Angwan Mua’zu all in Kaduna metropolis.
The managing director said that the company had established 23 business units, which were given the responsibility of expanding and sustaining the quality of service delivered to customers.
He said since the units were established, the response time for restoring interrupted supply had improved tremendously.
Idris said the units had also helped to ensure valuable linkages with customers, whom he said were now close enough to file their complaints, make suggestions, and report any case of vandalism in their areas.
He appealed to consumers in the four states to assist the company by alerting it or relevant security agencies whenever they noticed suspicious characters around electricity installations
– NAN
