Governor Obaseki has 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 trying to frustrate the effort 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 would have 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 steady power supply will then be guaranteed,” he said. He explained that steady power supply cannot be achieved overnight until the structural impediments are addressed, noting, “Even if the issue of generation of power is addressed, efforts must be made to address issues mitigating distribution and transmission.”
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 (DisCos) created following the unbundling and privatization of the state-owned Power Utility, Power Holding Company of Nigeria Plc highly misunderstood. BEDC misunderstood Obaseki who has introduced systems approach to quantifying the value of power generation and energy storage technologies in future electricity networks. A new approach that 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.

In June 2017,l Governor Godwin Obaseki announced to the world that in six month’s time, his administration would provide uninterrupted power supply to Bénin City and environs. According to his plans, government establishments on Sapele Road axis, including Government House, Secretariat, Court Complex, Central hospital, House of Assembly and also the Oba of Bénin Palace, will enjoy the 24 hours power supply.
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 megawatts plant at Ologbo in Orhionmwon local government area which BEDC has frustrated. The megawatts was expected to be transmitted on a new 35-kilometre double circuit 33Kva line to deliver 24/7 uninterrupted power.

At the signing of the MOU, Obaseki said: “We are confident from the facts available to us, that the design and engineering has been completed and that this facility hopefully should be ready within the next five months. This transaction is the first phase of a 50-megawatt plant. This is the first 5 megawatt, which the state is committed to purchasing from the conversation and negotiations that have taken place over the last three months.” In April while inspecting some projects last week, Obaseki told Edo people that clearance had been secured from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) over the power purchase agreement with Ossiomo Power. He said: “We have secured most of the clearance from Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). With this, we are optimistic that before the end of the year, when work on the buildings would have been completed, the PPA agreement with Ossiomo Power for 5MW of electricity will be activated to provide power to the Secretariat Complex.”
BEDC has frustrated the project by creating several bottlenecks and logjam by insisting that the law permitted it to be the sole distributor of power in the region. A source said the BEDC told the Ossiomio Power to put its power lines in place if it wanted to distribute power to the Edo State government.

Obaseki used the occasion of the 4th National Council on Power meeting in Benin City to vent his anger on the BEDC for frustrating the power purchase agreement and providing darkness to the people. They disclosed that the special technical committee constituted by Edo government to undertake a comprehensive audit of the power infrastructure in the state revealed the poor state of the BEDC infrastructure.
“BEDC since 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 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 over-billing its clients.
According to the governor, “195 communities have never seen electricity as BEDC is not ready to extend electricity to these communities. 128 communities have issues of collapse of infrastructure which BEDC is not prepared to fix. 219 transformers purchased by the state government and the former Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) as replacements for faulty transformers are yet to be installed by BEDC.
“The people are over-billed with the estimated billing system of BEDC. We lost a student due to the negligence of BEDC, for refusing to fix a pole that was knocked down after receiving money to fix it. I have instructed the Attorney General of Edo State to file charges of criminal negligence against the senior management of BEDC,” Obaseki said.

But the BEDC, in a statement s by its spokesman, Mr. Tayo Adekunle, said the Ossiomo case was before a competent court of law, adding that various third parties have been approaching the firm to supply independent power through its network under the embedded generation, eligible customers, micro grid regulations of NERC.
Edo-Azura power project represents a blueprint for power plants model in Nigeria which BEDC has completely neglected. Edo State Governor, Mr. Godwin Obaseki, has said with the 450MW Azura- Edo power project now on stream, the state is looking at attracting more investors for the Benin Industrial Park and technology innovation hubs, which would benefit from the conducive business environment and guaranteed power in the state.

The electricity sector in Edo State is undergoing an unprecedented transition which BEDC has failed to utilize. Today, Azura power is providing affordable, secure and reliable electricity by attracting investors with low risk, stable returns. BEDC has not taken advantage of the liberal investment incentives here and improved power supply from Azura. BEDC cannot provide electricity for industrial customers, for processing, producing, or assembling goods including diverse industries such as manufacturing, mining, agriculture.
Civil society groups in Edo State, under the auspices of the Edo Civil Society Organisations, have perfected plans to stage serious protests over the planned renewal of the operational license of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company, BEDC, over what the groups described as total failure of the company in its coverage areas of Edo, Delta, Ondo and other States.

Rising from a crucial meeting of the groups in Benin recently where the performance of the Funke Osibudu-led management of the company was reviewed, the groups disclosed that the people have been subjected to all manner of sufferings from the operations and activities of BEDC in service delivery since they took over power distribution in the area, warning that the people cannot continue under the draconian and ‘inefficient’ performance of the company.
Edo Civil Society Organisations shall be mobilizing the people to launch a massive and protracted protests against the renewal of BEDC licence both in Edo state and in Abuja, stressing that President Buhari’s attention must be drawn to the activities of BEDC that has given the government a poor performance in the power sector.

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Inwalomhe Donald, Benin City [email protected]