Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) has said the high rate of vandalising of its installations in the five states of the South East contributes to the incessant disruptions of its services.
The company, which hosted its customers at a forum in Enugu, said its underground cables, transformers and transformer oils had either been vandalised or drained in various parts of the zone, thereby putting various communities in darkness. Consequently, it called for the assistance of members of the public to secure the installations.
Managing Director of EEDC, Mr Robertson Dickerman, who was addressing the first customers’ forum, explained that one of the greatest challenges of the company since it came on board last year was vandalism.
“There is no passing day without a report of vandalism in various parts of the zone. They vandalise and steal our underground cables, drain oil in transformers and many others. This is a big hindrance to our distribution efforts. “We lose millions of naira attempting to replace some of these items and securing these facilities. We are using this medium to appeal to you to assist us secure the installations and also ask whether you know any solution that we can apply to solve this problem,” he said.
Dickerman assured that the EEDC was poised to ensure all round distribution of electricity to all parts of the zone, explaining that from an installed 220MVA in November last year, the company had added 45MVA, to enable it generate more power.
He stated that new transformers had been procured and were being mounted in various parts of Enugu, with the aim of relieving over loaded transformers, assuring that within the next two weeks, there would not be overloaded transformers in the state.
The managing director said the company had an elaborate plan to continue to meet the power supply needs in the zone, stressing that the problems being experienced in various parts of the zone would soon be over.
“These are the initial problems we should encounter because we are new but not new to the system. There is no way we cannot supply light to you unless we want to be out of business. The only thing we are known for is to supply generated electricity and that is why we will continue that our consumers should exercise patients, as all we know
now a problems will be sorted out with time.”
Dickerman, said the customer forum would be carried out in the five states of the South East which is the company’s operational coverage area to ascertain the challenges, complaints and prospects in her operations, saying it was a way of serving the public better.
Some of the participants identified unstable power supply, worn out transformers, low voltage supply, analogue meters, estimated billing system as well as inability to access pre-paid meters as some of challenges being encountered by consumers in Enugu.
They also deplored the attitude of staff of the company and poor quality services which the company had continued to offer since it took over and called for improved services.

 

EEDC blames vandalism on poor power supply