By NKIRUKA NNOROM

Managing Director of Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, Ikeja DISCO, Engr. Abiodun Ajifowobaje, has identified inadequate customers’ metering as one of the major challenges confronting the new owners in the power sector.

Delivering a paper titled, “The Power Sector Post-Privatisatin: Challenges and Implication on the Manufacturing Sector”, at the fifth edition of MAN Ikeja Manufacturers’ Consultative Forum, he said that the new owners also battle with inadequate supply from the national grid, saying that it has continued to hamper their ability to meet up with current demand.

Represented by Mrs. Olubukola Ojurongbe, General Manager, Customer Service, he said that only 35 percent of Ikeja DISCo’s customers are adequately metered as at date, while the company receives an average of 350 mega watts per month since November when the privatization exercise was completed out of its 900MW demand, leaving the company with 550Mw shortage.

He noted that it is impossible to guarantee 24 hour power supply with the present situation.
He stated that it is pertinent for the country to seek power generation from alternative sources like wind, solar, and waste among others, saying that this is what is obtainable in countries like Sweden.
He further appealed to Nigerians to desist from energy theft as it erodes the revenue of the new power owners.
Speaking on ‘Other Sources of Power Available to Manufacturers aside IKEDC’, Engr. Reginald Odiah, Managing Director, Bennett Industries. Limited and Chairman, Infrastructure Committee, Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, said that the most viable alternative for manufacturers is delineation of members into clusters and provision of power plants to serve each cluster.

According to him, the system will eliminate the agony and pains of running individual power plant at unnecessarily high cost, allow manufacturers to fully concentrate on their core business, and substantially reduce cost of production for which power alone constitute about 35 percent to 40 percent.

He advised the DISCOs to “introduce and encourage energy eficieny practices that will reduce wastages and free saved energy for use.