Electricity; Why we are rejecting load ―DisCos

The umbrella body of the 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos have explained reasons for rejecting loads transmitted to them by the transmission company.)

Before now, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has repeatedly accused the Discos of refusing to take maximum electricity loads allocated to them for distribution to their various consumers.

In a recent weekly electricity allocation log, the company said the 11 Discos, between August 27 and September 3, 2017 refused to take up and distribute a total of 22,277.53 megawatts (MW) of power produced by power generation companies (Gencos).

However, the Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, Barr. Sunday Oduntan at a one-day Electricity Policy Education Workshop for Energy Correspondents in Abuja on Wednesday, affirmed to the accusations.

In his presentation on a case Study on Journalistic Misinformation, he explained that the issue of load rejection was majorly as a result of transmission constraints and the resolve of the TCN to transmit electricity to areas where such quantum are not required.

“Those people that are going about saying DisCos are rejecting load, I want to confirm to you today that it is true that we sometimes reject load not all the time and I will tell you the kind of load that we reject,” he said.

According to him, most of the transmission infrastructure owned by the Federal Government FG are obsolete making it impossible for Discos to live up to expectations.

He affirmed that every Discos has a right to decide the area where it requires electricity for its consumers but noted that because of transmission bottlenecks, such is not respected.

Citing instance of Ayede transmission station in Oyo State which supplies electricity to Shagamu in Ogun State, Oduntan stated that the said bottlenecks have led to the reduction of supply to both states where the iBEDC requires energy.

“For instance, some people help you in the car park to carry your load, they either carry loads on to places either on their head or shoulder, they cannot carry the load on their knee, it is not possible.

“The issue of load rejection is not a new thing, we into a business which is already in deficit so even the little money I need to collect so as to pay part of my debt to my creditor, I have the right to tell you where I want my light. If you say TCN, between I and transmission, the Transmission Company is the trailer that goes to the factory to bring the goods to me for me to distribute.

“I have the right, I am the one paying for the good, the trailer, you are getting paid for transportation you don’t have the right to tell me where my warehouse should be, I am the one selling the good. If my buyers are in Gwagwalada I can say take it to my warehouse in Gwagwalada, tomorrow I say I want it to be in Asokoro but what do they do? When we say this is where we want it because they have transmission bottlenecks and constraint and I will give you some examples.

“Anybody who is familiar with Oyo state and Ogun State, in Ibadan there is a place called Ayede, there is a big TCN facility in Ayede transmission station the lines in Shagamu Ogun state comes from Ayede and in Shagamu they have another transmission station.

“The one in Shagamu was commissioned in 1979 before Shagari died and it has been yearly refurbished or properly maintained. The one in Shagamu supplies light to Ijebu-Ode, Ijebu-Igbo, Ago-Iwoye and a lot of places within that franchise but between Ayede in Oyo state and Shagamu in Ogun state there is something they call Thunder Conductor, the basic of it is that if you are supposed to use a cable say 800mm and you are using 400mm.

“The reality is that the quantum of electricity you can send on the 800mm, you cannot send the same on 400mm. So from Ibadan to Shagamu even if there is a high level of generation IBEDC, Ibadan DisCos cannot fulfil its obligation to its customers in Shagamu because there are constraints on the way caused by TCN facility.

“These TCN constraints are everywhere. There is breaker issue between Ikeja west along Abeokuta line to Ojere, in Kano there is also a braker issue which is making it impossible for Kano to take its own allocation which is just 8 percent there are just trying to correct that. What we are saying is that Transmission belongs to the Federal Government FG they need to fund it more and as long Oduntan maintained that;”as long as TCN wants to dump load where I don’t want it, I will reject it. It is about giving us electricity where it is not commercially viable for us.”

He further urged the FG to increase its investment saying;”the issue of load rejection is encompassing and should be solved holistically.”