Incessant Collapse Of National Grid Caused By Obsolete Equipment —ECPF

The Electricity Consumer Protection Forum has blamed the incessant collapse of the national grid on obsolete power transmission and distribution equipment across the country.

Its National Coordinator, Mr Adeola Samuel-Ilori, made the assertion in an interview with  our correspondent on Wednesday in Lagos.

Samuel-Ilori said that the electricity end-users were worst hit by the epileptic power supply as they had to spend their hard-earned resources to provide alternative power supply in their homes and businesses.

“The frequent collapse of the grid, these days is caused by many factors which include obsolete lines, materials still in place and non-investment in that area.

“The Transmission Company of Nigeria should be asked why such equipment is not replaced despite the intervention funds supplied by the African Development Bank,’’ he said.

According to him, the privatisation process has not yielded the desired result due to the non-performance of the transmission and distribution layers as well as their failure to invest in equipment.

He said that the Forum just received a complaint from a community in Ifako-Gbagada complaining that their transformer, which recently stopped working was 30 years old.

“Yet, the distribution company is not ready to invest in buying another one.

“Such obsolete transformers can do wrong feedback which may lead to grid collapse and we have many of them like that across the country,’’ Samuel-Ilori said.

He also opposed the plan by the Federal Government to obtain a $3 billion World Bank loan to upgrade power infrastructure, noting that it was not proper for the government to obtain such loans in a relatively privatised sector.