Ossiomo power plant and failure of BEDC in Edo State

Forum 1 year ago

Ossiomo power plant and failure of BEDC in Edo State

THE Benin Electricity Power Distribution Company, BEDC, has failed to meet its commitments to purchase and distribute sufficient power generated for it by generation companies, or GENCOs. Distribution companies, or DISCOs, have failed to supply adequate electricity to Nigerian consumers.

The Federal Government said it would no longer provide intervention funds as a subsidy to the DISCOs and might take drastic actions against the companies that have continued to enjoy subsidies without commensurate results.

BEDC is one of the DISCOs that does not evacuate all of the 7,000 megawatts generated by the GENCOs, but pays only 15 per cent for the 3,000 megawatts it eventually distributes. The implication is technical and economic losses as the GENCOs don’t get value for the electricity they generate, while the end consumers also do not get adequate electricity, despite the output of the GENCOs.

Checks in the Benin metropolis since September 2022 have revealed that BEDC has collapsed, providing less than one hour of electricity per day, and the Ossiomo Power Company is giving power to customers with the assurance of better power options for residents.

Recently, Governor Godwin Obaseki commissioned a three-kilometre streetlight project along Siluko Road and another 3.3 km streetlight project along Sapele Road, in Egor and Ikpoba-Okha LGAs, respectively, provided by Ossiomo. He has completed the construction of 40 km out of the 200 km of streetlight projects around the greater Benin area.

With the improvement of distribution infrastructure by Ossiomo Power in selected areas of the Benin metropolis, residents are opting for the company’s power solution, with the supply averaging 22 to 24 hours per day. The industrial areas are even better served because they need electricity to keep the machines running, which is not what you get everywhere in Nigeria.

It is great that BEDC, which used to dominate the market, has collapsed. With this, we have a more stable market situation as people are now provided with options when considering power solutions for their homes or industries. Those who will benefit the most are industries, hotels and others in the hospitality sector.

Governor Obaseki had disclosed that Edo State has developed plans to help overcome the challenges of power distribution to industries, residential buildings and other users. BEDC has misunderstood this and is trying to frustrate the efforts of the governor in providing electricity to the people of Edo State.

This includes building areas of use; that is, developing industrial parks, housing estates, and other clusters that can be directly connected to generating plants. He said: “When these plans are fully achieved, the state will have a steady power supply to support businesses and other users.

With time, Benin City and other towns in the state will be better planned and segregated so that industrial use of power can be separated from domestic use. When this is done, the structural challenges along the chain of generation and distribution will then be reorganised, and a steady power supply will then be guaranteed”.

He noted that “even if the issue of power generation is addressed, efforts must be made to address issues mitigating distribution and transmission”. There is a need for President Muhammadu Buhari to adopt Governor Obaseki’s model of power distribution in Edo State. There is competition between Ossiomo and BEDC in Edo State.

There is alternative electricity in Edo State today. Nigeria needs this model to solve the electricity challenge. In June 2017, Governor Obaseki announced to the world that in six months time, his administration would provide uninterrupted power supply to Benin City and environs.

Government establishments on the Sapele Road axis, including the Government House, Secretariat, Court Complex, Central Hospital, House of Assembly, and the Oba of Bénin Palace, will have 24 hour power supply, according to his plans. Obaseki was quite assured that he would deliver on his promise in record time.

He gave the assurance after he entered a power purchase agreement with Ossiomo Power and Infrastructure to bulk- purchase the five megawatts the firm planned to generate from its 50-megawatt plant at Ologbo in the Ikpoba-Okha local government area, which BEDC had frustrated. The megawatts were expected to be transmitted on a new 35-kilometre double circuit 33Kva line to deliver 24/7 uninterrupted power.

The electricity market in Edo State is taking a turn for the better as increased competition among players has created options for reliable power supply for residents, who credit Governor Obaseki for opening up the state for investment that has now improved their living standards.

Obaseki is setting new boundaries for power generation in Edo State, which Benin Electricity DisCo (“BEDC” or “Benin Disco”), which is one of the successor distribution companies created following the unbundling and privatisation of the state-owned Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc, highly misunderstands. BEDC misunderstood Obaseki, who has introduced a systems approach to quantifying the value of power generation and energy storage technologies in future electricity networks.

A new approach was required to determine a technology’s value to the power systems of the 21st century. The centrepiece of the “system value”(SV) concept is a whole electricity systems model on a national scale, which simultaneously determines the ideal power system design and unit-wise operational strategy.

BEDC, since its inception, has not added any value to the infrastructure it inherited, which explains the poor and deteriorated state of the power infrastructure in this part of the country. “The BEDC personnel on the field are unprofessional in their conduct and openly engage the services of military personnel to intimidate and brutalise customers.

Nigerians want to have improved access to power supply, and industries want to have electricity to scale up production.” Obaseki had accused the BEDC of writing petitions against the deal sealed for the purchase of five megawatts of electricity to light up government offices in Benin City.

The governor, who said the petitions have hindered the success of the purchase agreement, decried the poor supply of electricity to the state, the company’s resolve not to supply pre-paid meters to electricity consumers, and its culture of overbilling its clients.