The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), has vowed to go tougher on anyone caught vandalizing its facilities.
This is also as it has called on electricity consumers in the southeast to desist from assaulting or harassing officials of the taskforce team of the company.
Head of Security of the company, Mr Frank Ejiofor, who represented the management at a customers’ forum in Nsukka district, weekend, vowed that such acts were criminal and would be treated as such.
He added that it would not solve any problem the consumers were facing. He said the company has an effective feedback mechanism and urged the public to file complaints or other such channels to present their grievances instead of attacking staff while discharging their duties.
“It is wrong to assault or attack any EEDC staff that is discharging his duties no matter his position or offense. If he or she has done something wrong, instead of taking the law into your hands and descending on the person, just launch a complaint to us and we will take it up from there. We have a way of punishing erring staff,” he said.
He, however, assured the customers that power outages will soon be a thing of the past as generation and equal distribution will improve soon.
He frowned at cases of vandalism of power installations, noting that such acts were capable of affecting power generation and distribution and causing outages.
He said the company has security taskforce teams patrolling major locations where power installations are located and called on electricity consumers in the state to liaise with local vigilante groups and always be on the alert so as to monitor their transformers against thieves disguising as staff of the company.
“So far, about 15 transformers have been vandalized in the area and it costs between N500, 000-700, 000 to fix a vandalized transformer. So you need to always protect these transformers as it belongs to you all. In Orlu, we arrested three people from the north who came to vandalize transformers in the area. This is bad and we should be vigilante to protect our own,” he said.
He said new transformers can only be given to electricity users in cases when there is overloading even as the company has approved over 500 new transformers to Enugu state.
On new metering, he said “We have started re-metering and our customers have started getting them especially big companies with higher power usage. It is a gradual process and urge you to be patient with us as we have enough to go round for those who need it.”
The Head of Safety in the company, Mr Elvis Chukwuemeka Chinedu called on electricity consumers in the state to be security and safety cautious whenever they are using their appliances at homes as the dry season comes with some safety hazards while consuming electricity.
The Head, Communications of the company, Engr Chukwuemeka Eze said the aim for organizing the interactive forum was to interact with electricity consumers in the state, receive their complaints with the aim of knowing how to serve them better.
“The issues raised here are things we expect. The primary thing is that we are here to interface with the customers to know what their issues are.”
Corroborating the MD, Mr Eze said “Metering is an going thing and of course with the metering gap we have on ground, there is no way everyone will be metered at once. But there is a conscious effort by management to meter our customers. A lot of resources have been committed into metering customers, over ten billion naira has been committed to this.
“We only bill based on the energy we push out to our customers. However, if any customer has issues or concern regarding billing, we have opened channels through which they can reach out and they will be addressed. So billing is a function of the customer’s class.
“If you are in a commercial environment, your tariff will be different from that of a residential customer. These are some issues that customers are not aware of which we use this medium to educate them on that as well as our operations,” he said.
Some of the consumers who were present at the forum, shared their thoughts on the power situation in the area.
On the issue of constant power outage raised by customers, Mr Ejiofor said the company only generates what it is given by the generating companies, adding that only 9% is allotted to the EEDC.
“When we talk about power outages, it is not really our fault. We only distribute what we are given from the overall generation of power to the states in the southeast. For instance, if 10, 000 megawatts is what is generated in the country, only 9% is what we get for distribution. We don’t manufacture power, we share what is given to us,” he said.
Uchenna Ugwu commended the company for their expertise in taking a read of his pre-paid meter.
“When one of your officers came to read my meter some months ago, he did it professionally by showing me the total usage and how the consumption went. It’s really commendable,” he noted.
Comments