Oscarline Onwuemenyi
27 March 2016, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Management of Kaduna Electric, the operator of Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company (KEDC) has attributed the incessant cases of transformers failures in its operational territory to inter-connection of two transformers and other illegal tampering with distribution transformers by unauthorized persons.
A press statement signed by the Head, Corporate Communication of the Company, AbdulAzeez Abdullahi quoted the Chief Engineering and Technical Services Officer of KEDC, Engineer Bello A. Musa, as saying that in the last six months, eleven transformers were burnt and investigation by the company revealed that some customers, obviously for selfish reason, connects power supply from two different transformers, thereby causing short-circuit in the transformers.
He warned that besides endangering the company’s valuable equipment like transformer, inter-connection of two transformers also put innocent lives at great risk.
Engr. Bello stressed the need for effective collaboration and synergy between the Company and their customers, if the menace was to be addressed.
He appealed to all electricity users in the Company’s franchise area to report anybody suspected to be feeding from two different transformers or tampering with power supply facilities to the company for appropriate action.
According to him, “This is the only way we can check the cases of incessant transformer failures and the resultant inconveniences to our customers,” assuring the customers of the Company’s resolve to providing steady and qualitative power supply.
It would be recalled that many communities in Kaduna have stayed without light for months due to transformer failure or vandalism of power supply infrastructure which the Company is finding it difficult to replace.
In a similar vein, the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has asked customers in its franchise area to desist from by-passing their electricity meters in order to enable the company render better services to them.
The call was made by the company’s regional manager, Hauwa Kulu-Muhammad, while speaking at the customer consultative forum for new tariff in Abuja, where she also urged customers to ensure prompt payment of their electricity bills.
Muhammad, who maintained that the company is determined to provide all its customers with meters over the next two years, said, “It is part of our corporate responsibilities; we are looking at how possible it is to supply meters to all the customers in our franchise in the next two years.
“We expect them to be paying their bills as and at when they are due, and not to by-pass meters but as a matter of importance protect installations on their properties as the company is also expecting a better business as we give priority to our customers.”
She also explained that the company which didn’t have a cost reflective tariff for a long time can now serve its customers better with the new tariff now in place even as the generation companies can produce more as they too will be able to pay the gas suppliers.
On vandalism, she said that though the federal government has given the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) the mandate to protect all the installations, the host communities can as well help in ensuring the safety of such installations.