ANED berates Obaseki over row with BEDC

ASSOCIATION of Nigeria Electricity Distributors (ANED) has berated Edo State Governor Godwin Obaseki for his treatment of Managing Director of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC).

A statement by ANED’s Executive Director for Research and Advocacy, Chief Sunday Oduntan, said the body was displeased with Obaseki for ordering BEDC’s MD out of his office when the House of Representatives Committee on Power visited him.

Obaseki accused the managing director of “failing to meet obligations to electricity consumers in the state”.

The statement reads: “What is most unfortunate about the whole episode is that there is a misunderstanding about how the power sector works and this has led to the governor’s unfair expectations from BEDC. I cannot also rule out with the upcoming elections and everyone looking for scapegoats, that local politics may be involved in this case and that is unfortunate.

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“The state generates over 600MW and as such should not be encountering power supply challenges. However, he needs to understand that the power generated at Azura or any other power plant in the country is first sent to the national grid from where it is redistributed to different DisCos for distribution to customers.

“Benin DisCo is only entitled to nine per cent of the power sent out from the national grid, so it is clear that the DisCo does not have the power to retain the 600MW generated by Azura.

“More interestingly is the fact that over 40 per cent of this nine per cent is distributed within Edo State as the host community of the DisCo. The other three states in the franchise area – Delta, Ekiti and Ondo – share the remaining 60 per cent. You can see therefore that Edo State enjoys the lion share of what the DisCo gets already. To allocate more to Edo – which is what the governor is advocating for – will be grossly unfair to the other states.”

Oduntan also said it was unfair to attack a DisCo on record as having the highest number of prepaid meters in the country all to ensure customers get value for their money as well as end the practice of estimated billing.

An earlier statement by BEDC said the company had completed plans to give out more prepaid meters from the first quarter of 2019 under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) programme of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to further accelerate the metering of consumers.