02 September 2014, Abuja – The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has disclosed its recent acquisition of 23 brand new operational vehicles valued at about N106, 523,876, as part of measures to boost electricity services delivering to its customers.
Also, the distribution company said it has acquired and installed 140 new transformers worth about N200 million to replace dysfunctional transformers in its distribution network.
Already, the AEDC has placed order for procurement of another set of 200 distribution transformers with combined capacity of 80MVA worth N260 million.
Disbursing the newly acquired operational vehicles to business units within its network in Abuja, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger States, Managing Director of AEDC, Mr. Neil Croucher said the company had procured 18 Toyota Hilux trucks and five Kia Sedan cars in line with its commitment to efficient electricity service delivery to its customers.
Croucher noted that the new vehicles were specifically meant to facilitate speedy response to customers’ complaints by its operations staff, and to enhance revenue collection drive by relevant departments of the company.
“Given the very poor state of facilities in our coverage area as at the time we took over management of the company last year, we strongly felt we need to deploy new vehicles like these ones to fast track our responses to complaints by our customers,” Croucher said.
He further explained that: “As you are already aware, we are investing massively in improving the quality of equipment on our network, and I am delighted by the kind of responses we are getting from our customers on the noticeable improvement in service delivery.”
“We must note, however, that a lot more is expected of us, and that is why we have provided these vehicles to you today to ensure that where there are any hitches, you should step in swiftly to attend to our customers,” he added.
In another related development, the Executive Director, Commercial Services of AEDC, Mr. Ernest Mupwaya told customers during a recent consultative meeting across the distribution network that the company has undertaken various network upgrade projects to guarantee quality electricity service delivery.
Mupwaya who listed some of the new upgrades to include a new transformer installation exercise at at Lokoja earlier in March to add 15MVA to the network, completion of a field base at Suleja in February which also added 15MVA capacity to the network, said that such upgrade are ongoing efforts to keep the stability of the network.
Other projects which Mupwaya said has been concluded in the network are the construction of a total of 49.5 kilometres of high tension (HT) lines between January and March, 2014 to enhance network reconfigurations and reinforcements, as well as completion of a 33KV power evacuation project in Gwagwalada, thus leading to an additional of 80 megawatts (MW) in the network and boost to power supply in Kwali, Yangoji and Abaji, amongst other communities in the area.
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