The Ibadan Electric Distribution Company (IBEDC) on Saturday said arrangement had been concluded to restore electricity for its consumers in Ilesa community.
This was contained in a statement signed by the Head of Branding & Corp Communications of IBEDC, Mrs Angela Olanrewaju, which was forwarded to Tribune Online in Osogbo.
It said the decision was sequel to the intervention meeting hosted by the Governor of Osun State, Alhaji Gboyega Adetola, and with the Oba’s Committee constituted by Ijesaland to facilitate the restoration of power.
According to the statement, “the Board and Management of IBEDC as a customer-centric organization is committed to restoring power to Ilesa as soon as possible.”
Also, the Chief Operating Officer, IBEDC Engr. John Ayodele said that in response to the appeal from the governor and the people of Ilesa that the company would commence initial preparations required to restore service from next week.
Ayodele said, “IBEDC had perfected a plan to send an advance party comprising of its technical and administrative staff to critically assess and see what could be salvaged for the gradual restoration of power.”
He said the administrative staff would also commence the cleanup and tidying of the office facilities for resumption, adding along with this was the replacement of some staff in Ilesa and recruitment of qualified indigenes of Ilesa to ensure better service to customers and engender confidence from the community.
“In resolving one of the major issues that led to the crisis, which is metering and estimated billing. IBEDC will within the next few weeks clear the backlog of meters as all customers that paid under the previous metering schemes that show evidence of payment will be metered.”
“Also unmetered customers that are willing to pay can take advantage of the new metering scheme, Meter Asset Provider (MAP), introduced by NERC to bridge the metering gap, as we have contracted seven vendors under this scheme.”
“This will greatly reduce estimated billing which has been a thorny issue. IBEDC will also strengthen its community engagements platform and explore strong communication/ feedback mechanisms to encourage customers to report grievances and issues in an amicable way”, Ayodele remarked.