BEDC Electricity Plc. (BEDC) yesterday earmarked a total of 200,200 meters to be rolled out to power consumers in Delta State in the next two years with a monthly cumulative average of 10,000units under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme.
The BEDC Executive Director of Commercial, Mr. Abu Ejoor, disclosed this at a media launch of MAP in Asaba, the state capital, for Delta State customers, saying the scheme has taken off in Asaba and will eventually move to all local government areas in the state.
According to him, some of the locations flagged for takeoff of MAP within Asaba include NTA road, behind NTA, behind Government House, Amechi Iyio Way, Anwai road, Infant Jesus axis, Borrow Pit community, and Ibuzo town road.
Ejoor opined that the MAP scheme would assist in reducing customer’s complaints on metering, wrong and estimated billings which he hinted accounts for over 60 per cent of complaints.
Stressing that BEDC was committed to improving service delivery to customers, the executive director said the company had connected 112 communities without supply in its coverage areas to the national grid with 55 of such locations in Delta State.
Speaking further on current reality on power supply in the state, Ejoor explained that 32 per cent of BEDC power allocation comes to Delta State, adding that an average of 84,516MW is delivered to the state monthly.
“Before Asaba and Warri TCN problem, there was an average daily availability of 10 to 22 hours power on 33KV feeders and six to 10 hours on 11KV feeders. About 14 per cent of the power generated is lost due to poor network infrastructure; however, we have continued to improve the network,” he added.
He listed some recent power supply improvement projects in the state to include construction of commercial feeders in Asaba, Warri, Udu, Ogwuashi-Uku, and Agbor from six hours to average 22 hours to the commercial consumers in the environs, and the rehabilitation and restoration of power supply to many communities in the state, including Ubulu-Uku, Ibuzo, Issele-Uku, and Illah.
Also speaking, the Chief State Head for Delta State, Fidelis Obishai, disclosed that in view of the failed 2x150MVA 330/132KV power transformers in Asaba Transmission Station, power consumers were being presently fed from Onitsha, Anambra State, adding that available power is however 30MW as against 100MW required.
Obishai equally lamented that due to the faulty 1x60MVA power transformer in Effurun, the undersized conductor’s heavy load management is taking place in Effurun, Warri, PTI and Sapele axis of the state.
He said the total number of customers to be enumerated is over 319,552 across the business units, urging customers to cooperate with enumerators during the ongoing enumeration and asset validation exercise.
