Kunle Kalejaye 20 July 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos – The Eko Electricity Distribution Company, EKDC, 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 improve 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, the company said.
Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of EKEDC, Engr. Oladele Amoda, who stated this in Lagos, 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.
Amoda maintained that energy conservation was key to getting better mileage out of 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 (DISCOs) also need to adopt some of the concept of DSM as part of overall strategies 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.
