Discos not responsible for poor electricity supply—IBEDC, Chief operating officer

The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has said DisCos are not to blame for the poor power supply currently being experienced by customers.

IBEDC attributed the poor power supply to the “low allocation” it received from the national grid.

The IBEDC spokesperson, Busola Tunwase, told The PUNCH on Wednesday that the erratic power supply was a result of load shedding and reduced allocation.

The PUNCH reports that customers of IBEDC in Ogun, Oyo and others are lamenting poor power supply at the moment.

A reliable source who craved anonymity said the low electricity supply was caused by a drop in the national grid.

“Nobody wants to take the blame. The issue is from the national grid. The national grid has dropped drastically, but the generating companies are quiet about it, they don’t want to take the blame,” the source confided in The PUNCH.

Contacted over the poor power supply, the IBEDC spokesperson, said “Distribution companies can only give what they are given by the other stakeholders.”

She explained that if those on the ‘33 Line’ could be complaining of low power supply that explained that the issue was not from the power distribution companies.

“Something is wrong somewhere, which is not from us,” she asserted.

“If we get the supply, we have to give it out. Load shedding and reduction in allocation are the major problems; and that is what is affecting supply, not from IBEDC.

“We work together as a value chain. If we don’t get it, we cannot give it. If we get, we cannot store it inside a box. Electricity is to our benefit. If we give you a 24-hour supply, you will pay us our money. Isn’t it? It is an allocation issue and stakeholders are working together to resolve it,” Tunwase explained.

According to IBEDC spokesperson, DisCos are not getting enough allocation.

“The little allocation we have is what we ration within our customers. We cannot give what we don’t have,” she further enunciated.

Asked if the fault was from the national grid, Tunwase said, she could not blame anyone.

“I don’t want to lay the blame on anybody. I will just say it is an allocation issue. There are a lot of underlying issues going on now. But speaking from IBEDC point, we have a serious allocation issue. If we don’t get, we cannot give what we don’t have,” she added.

She appealed to customers to bear with the power company during this period.

“We are appealing to our customers to please bear with us in this trying time. The stakeholders in the electricity value chain are all working together to ensure we have better supply, but we cannot lay the fault on our desk right now, because it is based on the limitation from allocation,” she explained.

The IBEDC covers Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara and parts of Niger, Ekiti and Kogi States.

(Punch)