JOS – The Jos Electricity Distribution plc., on Wednesday said it spent N210 million to improve power supply to rural communities in Plateau.
The Head of Public Affairs Division, Mr Paul Ikwu, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Jos that more transformers were purchased and many sub-injection units beefed up to meet expanding demands.
Ikwu said that the renewed investment had ensured tremendous improvement in power supply since November 2013 when the new owners took over.
“The desire of the company is to provide quality services to our customers in Jos, Bukuru and the rural areas.
“We are working round the clock to rectify some of the faulty equipment that had slowed down progress in some areas; our aim is to ensure that all customers benefit from the new improvement,’’ he said.
Ikwu said that more improvement would soon be recorded as some staff had been sent to some foreign countries to purchase and bring in more transformers to serve the growing customers.
He attributed the improvement on the sanity brought into the network which minimise massive inefficiency and corruption that had always worked against stability in the system.
“Many of the problems had always bordered on vandalism, shortage of gas supply, indebtedness by customers, but we have tackled all of those issues,’’ he said.
Ikwu said that the new owners assessed the situation and started a customer audit, which enabled the company to plan, using the effective database. [eap_ad_1] He said the new owners had a platform put in place by the National Electricity Regulatory Company which served as a guide to encourage and help them to know areas that deserved special attention.
On the billing system, he said that the company was still using the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO), an inbuilt mechanism, which runs for five years in a roll before it could be changed.
Ikwu further said that power outage had indeed gone down, but pointed out that it was not determined by the company alone as several factors like generating, transmitting and distributing of power were all factors on the power supply chain.
“It is what they generate and transmit to us, that we try to distribute fairly,’’ he said.
On prepaid meters, he said that they were still in short supply, and not readily available for applicants.
“Right now, the management team is in overseas to bring them together with the transformers; when that happens, customers can be assured of even better service,’’ he said.
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