TheCable

The federal government has invited heads of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) and Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) over poor power supply in their service areas.

Adebayo Adelabu, minister of power, also invited Sule Abdulazeez, managing director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), for the same reason.

Since the turn of the year, electricity supply to the nation’s capital and across the country has gone from bad to worse, with distribution companies citing gas constraints to generating companies (GenCos) as reason for the prolonged, agonising blackout.

In a statement, Bolaji Tunji, special adviser on strategic communications and media relations to the minister, said power supply should have improved because of the pressure mounted on GenCos to increase their output.

“These two DisCos have been summoned due to the worsening power supply situation in their regions despite improved supply from TCN,” Tunji said.

“So, we expect power supply to have improved across the country, unlike what we are experiencing in some regions presently.

“Findings revealed that some distribution companies were deliberately not taking up power supply from TCN, while some power lines were also damaged by vandals in Abuja, Benin, Port Harcourt and Ibadan regions.”

The aide said the minister has threatened non-performing DisCos nationwide with “outright licence revocation”.

Tunji said the minister also directed TCN to commence repair work on the damaged transmission lines.

The aide added that despite the shortage of gas, power generation has been ramped up to over 4000MW in recent days.