Residents groan as power supply in Bayelsa worsens despite truce with PH DISCO

Barely one month after the two-week face-off that kept Bayelsa in total darkness, power supply has deteriorated after aggrieved youths who shut supply in protest agreed to a truce.

Residents comprising small business owners who reacted to the development on Tuesday called on the Port Harcourt Electricitiy Distribution Company (PHEDC) and Bayelsa government to keep to the terms of the truce agreements.

Bayelsa Government had on Jan. 8 resolved the rift between Ijaw Youths Council (IYC) and Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHEDC) which led to power cut in the state since December 23, 2019.

The youths had shut down the operations of the electricity DISCO in protest over poor power supply and estimated billing not proportionate to the power supplied to customers.

PHEDC resorted to arbitrary load shedding amongst three feeder pillars in the firm’s distribution network in Bayelsa, supplying power between short of agreed six and 12 hours in turns.

Residents who spoke on the power situation after the peace deal brokered by Secretary to Bayelsa Government, Kemela Okara, said that resolution of the conflict was commendable but regretted that the situation had returned to its previous state.

Okara had appealed to the aggrieved youths to vacate the offices of the power firm where they kept vigil daily and pledged to prevail on PHEDC to provide ‘adequate electricity’ to the people in return.

Mrs Jane Okube, who runs a salon at Amarata area of Yenagoa lamented the difficulties she faced with the power supply shortage adding that the high cost of operating a generator had made her business less profitable.

“We had hoped that after the protest we shall stop paying for darkness but can you believe that they are making demands for payment for December when there was no light.

“Just two days ago, they came for light bill and I asked them to leave my shop, it is very bad,” Okube said.

Mr Ebike Joseph, who runs a relaxation centre in Yenagoa said that the loss of patronage from customers who demand cold drinks forced him to source for iced blocks to cool drinks in the daytime while relying on generator at night.

“It is not easy to see people who come for cold drinks go away, the generators we use are not so fuel efficient and we spend more than N2,000 daily on fuel in the night and if we do the same in the day, how much do we have left,?

“ Things can’t add up so we have to but ice blocks to cool drinks even if it is to retain our customers, this January and we cannot think of passing the cost to the customers,” he said.

Ms Obiajunwa Modu-Spiff, Executive of Bayelsa chapter, National Youth Council of Nigeria who resides at Akemfa area of Yenagoa, said the protest had the support of the people but decried the return to epileptic supply.

“It is a relief; we have gone through a two-week period and had a festive season without power, compelling people to spend their limited resources in powering their generators.

“It was a very trying period and the small businesses got paralysed for two weeks but people stood by the youths to put a stop to ‘paying for darkness’ and the people endured the suffering as a price for demanding better services.

“The parties to the truce should keep to the terms to avoid a reccurence,” Modu-Spiff said.

For Igoniko Oduma, a Journalist and Public Affairs Analyst, the restoration of power without achieving the objectives of addressing the practice of estimated billing was a minus and leaves much to be desired.
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“The protest did not in clear terms resolve the issue of billing by estimates and generating imaginary figures as electricity bill when there is no proportionate supply of electricity.

“We have been through this cycle before, we have had the PHEDC ration power for six hours, twelve hours before in this town, the IYC should have addressed the core issue of metering based billing which is critical.

“If consumers are metered, then the DISCO will know that when there is no power supply, there is no revenue for them, and naturally they will do the needful and improve on supply” Oduma said.

 

Investigation showed that Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) had sanctioned the PHEDC for declining to take up available power from TCN’s Yenagoa substation to end users leaving power ‘stranded’.

On Aug. 20, 2019, TCN had announced the lifting of a suspension order from the electricity market it placed on the PHEDC on July 27, for breach of ‘Market Conditions/Participation Agreement’.

According to a notice available on TCN’s portal, the lifting of the sanction was a regulatory measure to ensure that distribution companies evacuated available power.

TCN said that lifting of the sanction followed PHEDC’s compliance, and took effect from Aug. 19, 2019, as the PHEDC and TCN had been shifting blames on the poor power supply in Bayelsa.

TCN had alleged that the PHEDC was unable to take up available power at its substation, while the PHEDC claimed that it was not getting enough power from the TCN’s grid.

However, Mr John Onyi, PHEDC Manager in charge of Corporate Communications said that the DISCO was grappling with a debt burden of N16.5 billion as at November, 2019, which hampered its operations.