27 July 2016, Owerri – Epileptic public power supply has continued to be a recurring decimal over the years in Nigeria. This has stifled the industrial sector of the nation’s sector as well as caused untold hardship on families.
It is also true that apart from private homes, the owners of industrial concerns were, and are still forced to seek other reliable sources of energy to power their industrial machines.
That was to lead to the current massive importation of all manner of electric generating sets. But the drawback today periodic scarcity of petroleum products which owners of generating sets have to endure, including extra expense bills that come with it. On the other hand, electric distribution companies have not ceased to distribute ‘crazy’ electricity bills, even when it is not commensurate with power supplied and consumed.
Salaries and pensions have run into several months of arrears and public power supply has not become any better. The times are very hard and since families run their generators for hours everyday, this expenditure sub-head has virtually gone out of the reach of most families. Unfortunately, nobody knows when this ugly power supply situation would change for the better.
It would appear there is a ray of hope in the horizon. It is a thing of joy that somebody has come up with the idea of a liquefied petroleum gas-powered generator and the Owerri Zonal Office of the Department of Petroleum Resources, DPR, provided the needed forum for him to showcase the invention during the sensitisation workshops for LPG marketers and end users.
Displaying the new finding, the Executive Director of the company, Mr. Obiegbu Light, brought a gas cylinder and a generator into the hall, connected the cylinder to the generator and effortlessly started it. The noise from the generator was subdued.
The usual smoke associated with petrol engines was equally absent. Although the DPR Zonal Operations Controller, Owerri Zonal Office, Ogbuefi Morrison Nwokedi, was principally interested in promoting the use of liquefied petroleum gas in homes by all, he, however, added that LPG operated generator was a plus to his establishment’s drive. “The use of gas is clean, cheap, safe and environment friendly.
The recent explosion which occurred at a private gas plant in Nnewi, Anambra State, which claimed some precious human lives, cannot be enough reason for Nigerians to discard the use of domestic gas,” Nwokedi said. While saying that the information available to DPR points to a palpable apathy for the use of domestic gas by customers in the South East geo-political zone, since the Nnewi gas explosion, the Zonal DPR boss, however, assured that the establishment would, as part of the programme, introduce the new DPR guidelines for standard operating procedures, SOP, for refilling plant operations in Nigeria.
Delivering a 17-page lecture at the event, the Head, Gas Division, DPR Owerri, Albert Echibe, advised marketers that only competent and duly certified personnel should man, monitor and supervise the discharging operations. “Only duly trained and certified operators shall perform the cylinder filling operations in the filling shed. The filling shed is a restricted area and his provision shall be strictly enforced”, Echibe, an engineer, said
- Vanguard
