Kano Disco, customers disagree over power sharing system, load allocation

Customers in different areas under the Kano electricity distribution company are expressing disapproval over what they say is an unfair power distribution system and a suspicion that their disco may be rejecting power.
KEDCO receives less than 300MW from the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and BusinessDay gathers it is becoming challenging to distribute this inadequate supply among 19.5million people in three states of Kano, Katsina and Jigawa.
“As I talk to you now, we receive about four hours of power daily and it is mostly in the night, I do not believe that is all the power they are getting,” said Ibrahim Maryam, a customer based in Kano.
For Mohammed Zaki, a resident based in Dutse, Jigawa State believes his state is marginalised when it comes to power distribution.
“Power is not constant at all, I do not know if they think we are important to them,” he said.
Meanwhile, the management of Kano Electricity Distribution Company Plc (KEDCO) has refuted the claim that the company was rejecting power allocated to it and called on customers to disregard the rumour that the company was rejecting power allocated it to frustrate debtor customers.
Mohammed Kandi, KEDCO’s spokesman told BusinessDay that the on-going load control as introduced by the management was meant to ensure equitable distribution of power so as to satisfy the electricity need of all classes of customers.
In August, the company announced it is dedicating 20 megawatts to industrial customers in Kano to enhance power supply for effective operations.
Jamilu Gwamna, managing director of the company, said this while inaugurating a new industrial feeder at Tamburawa in the outskirts of Kano in August. He said the new feeder, which has the capacity to carry 20 megawatts, is dedicated to companies in the area.
“As at 0800hrs on Nov 17, 2016 KEDCO received 205.8MW from TCN. Distribution thus: Kano: 120.8MW, Katsina: 60MW, Jigawa: 24.2MW,” KEDCO posted on their social media page.
Electricity Distribution Companies are finding it especially challenging deciding how to distribute meager supply among millions of customers and many have to do a balancing act. Worse still, they contend with system anomalies which could result in breakdown of facilities and cause capacity limitations.
“For obvious reasons, our demand forecast to the grid has never been met. This implies that what we receive is always insufficient to meet the electricity need of our customers, and this shows that we cannot reject load allocation,” Kandi said.

ISAAC ANYAOGU