Kunle Kalejaye
15 July 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKEDC has urged customers within it network and other electricity customers in Nigeria to comply with Demand Side Management, DSM to meet the country’s increasing electricity demand.
DSM is a strategy to save energy, reduce consumption and improvement the environment. It is an important tool for enabling a more efficient use of available energy resources and when applied to electricity systems, can mitigate electricity system emergencies, minimise blackouts and increase system reliability.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EKEDC, Engr. Oladele Amoda who stated this during the 13th Distinguished Electrical and Electronic Engineers Annual Lecture, DEEEAL in Lagos recently said DSM will help reduce energy prices, provide relief to the power grid, reduce investment in generation, transmission and distribution networks and contribute to lower environmental emission.
Engr. Amoda maintained that energy conservation is the only route that can get better mileage out of the available resources noting that the concept of DSM can be applied to electricity consumption in Nigeria.
“The Nigerian consumers can help mitigate the effect of inadequate power supply by adapting some of the rules of DSM by conserving electricity and using energy efficient appliances. Doing this will free up much-needed electricity to other consumers who would not have had electricity because of inadequacy of supply.
“The Nigerian Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCO, also needs to adopt some of the concept of DSM as part of an overall strategy for load management. DISCOs should reward their customers for conserving and using power efficiently. The Electricity Regulator can also help in this space by allowing DISCOs to charge tariffs at different levels of consumption through methods such as the Incline Block Tariff, IBT method,” Engr. Amoda said.
He added that government can also help by ensuring that appliances coming into the country meet appropriate efficiency standards noting that the journey to achieve high customer satisfaction is on the horizon through DSM.