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Senate warns power firm owners against high tariff

By BusinessNews Staff on December 4, 2013

The Senate on Monday cautioned the new owners of the recently privatised power firms not to overburden electricity consumers with high tariffs.

Although the Senate stated that it had not received any official document showing an increase in electricity tariff, it admitted that there had been complaints by consumers of alleged hike by some of the new investors.

Speaking at the presentation of a 2x15MVA injection substation at Apo in Abuja, the Chairman, Senate Committee on Power, Senator Philip Aduda, said Nigerians should not be overburdened with electricity charges.

When asked of what would be done to new power firms who increased tariff arbitrarily, he said, “I’ve not seen it because they’ve not brought it before me. When they bring it before me, of course, I will look at it and then I will see what we can do because we can’t continue to overburden Nigerians with such charges.

“We have to keep interacting with them to ensure that Nigeria has steady power supply. We need to make sure that they do the right thing and ensure that Nigerians get value for the money that is paid. We also have to ensure that they keep to the contractual agreements.”

Aduda decried the poor power evacuation capacity of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, otherwise known as KANN Consortium.

“I am aware that adequate power is given to the Abuja Disco but unfortunately, to evacuate it becomes a problem,” he said.

He urged the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, to improve the operations and management of the Transmission Company of Nigeria to ensure smooth evacuation of generated electricity.

He said, “We must also get our transmission right. We must ensure that those that are saddled with the responsibility of managing our transmission get it right.”

The Managing Director, Niger Delta Power Holding Company, Mr. James Olotu, said the projects would ensure that individual homes and businesses g0t adequate power supply.

He said, four generation plants under the National Integrated Power Projects were now completed.

He said “Four of the NIPPs are ready for inauguration. We are just doing housekeeping work in order to make sure that everything is according to contract and they are able to produce the kind of power that Nigerians want.”

The minister of power, who inaugurarated the substation, urged the new owner of the Abuja Disco to ensure optimal performance in power supply.

Nebo said, “For Abuja Disco, we expect the best; we expect you will pick the leadership. Abuja is the first one, we should ensure that we have ‘24/7’ power supply in the next few months and that is why all these projects are being inaugurated.”

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