Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja
A newly-released report from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has indicated that 66 Nigerians died from electricity-related accidents between January and June 2022.
While 37 persons lost their lives from January to March, the NERC document covering activities in the power sector for quarters one and two of last year, showed that 29 Nigerians were electrocuted between April and June.
Issues of safe use of power remain a major challenge in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), with many substandard materials still in the market and amid complaints of Distribution Companies’ (Discos) negligence.
But NERC stated that in accordance with section 32(1)(e) of the EPSRA, the enabling law guiding the industry, the commission continued to monitor the health and safety performance in the NESI to guarantee the delivery of safe and reliable electricity to Nigerians.
Out of the 87 mandatory health and safety reports in 2022/Q2, the commission said it received a total of 86 reports with Ibadan Disco having one outstanding report for 2022/Q2.
According to the industry regulator, the number of reports received in 2022/Q2 increased by eight from the 78 submitted in 2022/Q1.
A breakdown of the numbers showed that in 2022/Q2, the total number of incidents was 53, that is, 24 injuries and 29 deaths compared to 55 incidents recorded in 2022/Q1, which was 18 injuries and 37 deaths.
“The commission has developed new processes to track the submission of statutory reports, including the health and safety report by licensees which will guide the implementation of relevant actions against licensees that do not meet their reporting obligations.
“The health and safety reports were analysed in line with the provisions of Section 32(1)(e) of ESPRA for monitoring and evaluating of health and safety performance of licensees to ensure that operators abide by their responsibility of delivering safe electricity services to consumers,” it added.
NERC explained that the commission has launched investigations into all the reported incidents with a view to understanding the root causes and meting out relevant actions against the licensees where applicable.
Furthermore, the commission said that it has intensified efforts at implementing various safety programmes aimed at eliminating accidents in the industry.
“Some of the safety programmes implemented by the commission include the standardisation of protective schemes, public enlightenment on health and safety, engagement of government agencies on Right of Way (RoW) violations, and a review of an operational procedure for distribution system operators on fault clearing,” it said.
“The total number of incidents in 2022/Q1 was 55. There were 18 injuries and 37 deaths compared to the 40 incidents recorded in 2021/Q4, which were nine injuries and 31 deaths.
“The commission has launched investigations into all the incidents and will work with all sector stakeholders to improve the overall health and safety in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI),” NERC said in the report.
Last year, a THISDAY analysis showed that in 21 months, spanning January 2020 and September 2021, at least 156 Nigerians were killed while 87 were injured in similar accidents.
A review of the number of deaths and injuries between the first quarter of 2020 and the third quarter of 2021 from NERC, indicated that the Discos submitted 114 health and safety reports to the power sector regulatory agency in Q1,Q2, Q3 and Q4 respectively in 2020.
Out of the submitted incidents, nine persons died in Q1, 26 were killed in Q2, 19 were electrocuted in Q3 while 22 died in Q4 of the same year.
In the same vein, four persons were injured in electricity-related accidents in Q1,12 in Q2, 11 in Q3 while 13 persons were severely impacted by the accidents in Q4 of the same year.
In the first three quarters of 2021, spanning between January and September, the NERC report indicated that 24 people were killed by electrocution between January and March, 26 died between April and June, while 30 were killed between July and September of last year.
In addition, in terms of injury, including those affecting employees in the sector and third parties, the report stated that 13 persons were maimed in Q1, 15 in Q2 and 19 Nigerians in Q3 of 2021.
