BEDC Restores Power Supply To Benin Metropolis

 

The management of BEDC Electricity Plc (BEDC) has disclosed that it has restored power supply back to Benin metropolis after the outage which reduced supply to major parts of the city up till December 2018.

In a statement by its Head, Corporate Affairs, Mr. Adekule Tayo behalf of the BEDC management, BEDC said the outage was due to the failure of two out of the three Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) transformers wheeling power to BEDC for distribution to customers in major parts of Benin metropolis.

“Power availability in several locations is thus now restored to between 12 and 24 hours based on the normal load management schedule. The remaining areas still on between 6 hours and 9 hours will gradually be normalized as we progress with the BEDC new constructions and restoration of the second TCN transformer; the company said.

BEDC explained that while the outage lasted. It had to as a stop gap measure restored power supply at an average of 6 hours daily availability to most of the affected areas by connecting several of the customers on the affected feeders to the only existing functional TCN transformer in a manner that did not overload the system and to provide supply albeit on limited basis pending when normal supply will resume after the replacement of the remaining faulty transformers.

“We are pleased to inform our customers that based on the concerted effort of TCN, BEDC in conjunction with several well- meaning stakeholders, one of the TCN replacement transformers which was taken from Irrua have subsequently been put to use with electricity supply commencing from this source to the affected areas in Benin City”. BEDC said.

The Disco alerted that some miscreants who illegally consume electricity were planning to take advantage of the temporary failure of the TCN transformers to conduct various demonstrations on the streets of Benin in coming days.

“We have also been contacted by some well-meaning customers in our franchise states who have advised that some persons were being mobilized from these neighbouring states with financial inducements to join in the politically motivated demonstrated”. BEDC said.

Meanwhile the management of BEDC Electricity Plc. (BEDC) wishes to affirm that it would continue to improve on service delivery to customers in its franchise states including Edo state. For Edo state in particular, we are glad that the reduction in supply to Benin metropolis occasioned by the failed 60MVA with 2 power transformers is almost over.

TCN commenced work assiduously to sort out the inconveniences that this dual failure caused by arranging for replacement transformers; with the first of the two transformers being made available to BEDC for power distribution on 24th December 2018.

In the meantime as a stop gap measure, BEDC immediately restored power supply at an average of 6 hours daily availability to most of the affected areas, by connecting several of the customers on the affected feeders to the only existing functional TCN transformer. This was done in a manner that did not overload the system whilst providing supply albeit; on limited basis, pending when normal supply will resume, after the replacement of the faulty TCN transformers. BEDC also immediately commenced construction of new extending electrical lines from three different locations outside Benin to provide more power temporarily for Benin City.

We are pleased to inform that based on the concerted efforts of both Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), BEDC in conjunction with several well-meaning Nigerian stakeholders, one of the TCN replacement transformers which was taken from Irrua have subsequently been put to use, with electricity supply commencing from this source to the affected areas in Benin City, as from the last week in December 2018.

Power availability in some locations is thus now restored to between 9 and 24 hours. The remaining areas still on between 3 hours to 9 hours will be normalized once the second TCN transformer is available.

It should be noted that Edo State alone gets a monthly average supply of 127.31Megawatts of electricity which translates into 43.43per cent of total BEDC supply based on our 9percent allocation from the national grid. This means that Edo State has the highest electricity supply amongst the four states in our franchise areas.

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