By KUNLE KALEJAYE
The Chief Executive Officer of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Chris Akamnonu, has said that the new tariff regime will favour rural dwellers and the urban poor in the country.

Akamnonu, who said this at the weekend during the customers parliament held at the company’s headquarters in Ikeja, Lagos, also said that the new tariff structure contains subsidy made by the federal government that is meant to encourage customers to conserve energy.

He disclosed that the ministry of power had finalised arrangement to distribute energy saving bulbs to customers, which would be launched in June, and given out for free.

To complement federal government’s efforts in the on-going power transformation, he said that a 15MVA transformer is being installed at the Yusuf Injection Substation, AbuleEgba, which currently has 7.5MVA transformer.

He added that the additional transformer is being installed at Ago-Okota, which would be completed wthin the next one month.

Akamnonu further disclosed that the Ikeja DISCO has embarked on massive rehabilitation and reconstruction work at the injection substations, aimed at reducing faults caused by poor network.

“Already, rehabilitation work had been completed at Bolorunpe, PTC, Ekoro, Abesan, and Alimosho. The work, which involved complete changing of obsolete 11KV panels to new ones is on-going and would be carried out in other 29 locations within our network,” he said.

He reiterated that Ikeja Distribution Company is committed to providing quality power supply to all its customers, adding that from 2009 to date, the zone has injected about 905 distribution transformers into the system to relieve and update overloaded ones and also replace faulty ones.

He told the parliament that Customer Care Centres have been established in all the business units under the zone, and also at the company’s headquarters.

He added that the centres have been adequately staffed and well equipped to address the problems of customers, while also advising customers to contact the office through the already published telephone numbers.