Power supply in Nasarawa State is in a deplorable situation. The Business Manager, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), Lafia Unit, Engr. Jonamaha, explains to Sunday Vanguard why the situation will continue to remain so or get worse if nothing is done.

What is the state of power supply in Nasarawa State?
The Lafia Business Unit comprises of the entire Nasarawa State with the exception of Keffi Senatorial Zone. Nasarawa State does not generate power. The state is supplied by 132kv line from Katampe, Abuja. This line has what we call the transmission station in Karu supplying Karu, Nyanya, Mararaba area on 23Kv/11Kv line. The same line supplies Keffi, there is another transmission station in Kefffi, which is stepped down to 33kv and then to 11.

The transmission station continues to Akwanga. The line between Akwnaga and Lafia, which is 33kv line, was constructed about 30 years ago. That line was constructed when Lafia was just a local government. That time, there wasn’t much development in Lafia, the state capital, and environs that have now become development areas and local government area. Today, this line is overstretched. By implication, we have what we call voltage drop. This explains why we have serious voltage drop in Lafia and environs. Again the distance between Akwanga and Lafia is about 55km. Between Lafia and Awe is about 95km, it is the same line that supplies this area. It is also this line that supplies Doma axis and Agyaragu, Obi. All these account for the low voltage of electricity in Lafia and environs.

How we have managed the little fund we have
In the midst of all these, we still have to manage what we have. The only way for us is to do a lot of load shedding to ration power supply. Apart from the low voltage, the line itself is over stretched. It is carrying a load far above its capacity. The energy is not available to us in the first place, and even if it is available, we face the problem of transporting the voltage in a single circuit 33kv line from Akwanga to Lafia. More importantly, the Transmission Company of Nigeria deemed it fit to install what we call capacitor bank and the essence is to burst the voltage.  But right now, the breaker controlling the capacitor is not functioning.

*PHCN transformer

I have requested from our head office in Abuja to see how to reactivate the capacitor. With that capacitor in place, power supply will boost our voltage profile by 4 KV. Supposing we have low voltage of about 25KV, when it is boosted with capacitor, we will have 29KV. Presently we have as low as 17KV or 18. That is a problem. Secondly, the PHCN, through the Transmission Company, has decided to extend the 132KV line that drops in Akwanga to Lafia. The contract has been awarded. With that extension we are going to have bulk supply on 132KV instead of the 33KV supplying Lafia and environs. That will address the low voltage problem we are experiencing.

There is another contract ongoing, that is the construction of 330KV line from Jos to Makurdi through Lafia. The contractor is working on that line. The construction work had passed Lafia and close to Makurdi. The Nasarawa government is working towards stepping that 330KV to 133KV along Shandam Road in Lafia, when completed. That will be the lasting solution to the low voltage problem in this axis. By the time these two lines project 132KV and 133KV are actualized, we can even back-feed Akwanga, Keffi and Karu from Lafia on 132KV.

How long will it take to fix all these?
The extension of 132KV line from Akwanga to Lafia is about to commence according to the contractor. The 330KV is near completion, stepping it down to 133KV here in Lafia does not take much time. Hopefully, before the end of 2014, this project will materialize; with that we will be planning on how to take care of other neighboring states.

Do we have internal problem of inadequate feeder transformers?
The state government has given us distribution transformers of various types. This intervention has practically reduced the problem of load shedding arising from over loading of distribution transformers. However we have some few isolated cases of load shedding due to over loading. So what we simply do is local load shedding whereby areas using the same transformer share power supply. Sometimes it is not that the transformer is over loaded but because development in the Lafia metropolis is growing and the location of transformers may become far from the places of expansion.

What other challenges do you face from customers and how are you coping with it?

Our objective as a power company is to provide adequate power for the people in the state and to also generate revenue from the little power we supply. Since I came here, I noticed that people are reluctant to pay bills. The reason some of them give is that they don’t have full voltage and therefore cannot pay bills, while some people believe it is a national cake we must enjoy free of charge.

We are doing our best to enlighten the general public on this. This has affected our cash collection in the state. But with time I know we shall overcome this. I want people to understand that payment of electricity bill is not an option as far as they are using electricity no matter how little.