…..Targets 20,000 Customers In One Month
Uche Cecil Izuora
Aba Power, has started rolling out the second phase of its massive meter installation, according to reports from Aba, the commercial hub of Abia State.
The power utility resumed with 20,000 smart meters provided by Eves Metering of China, which will be installed fully within one month at about N3.5 billion.
The company, however, is not providing meters simultaneously to all nine of the 17 local government areas (LGAs) it serves, a development confirmed by Aba Power’s Brand and Communication Senior Manager, Edise Ekong, who told correspondents that the rollout “is feeder by feeder”.
Ekong disclosed that the utility is currently providing free smart meters “right now to only customers under the Aba-Owerri Express 33KV Feeder.
“This feeder covers customers in Umuode Village in Osisioma Local Government Area, the Old Aba-Owerri Highway, also in Osisioma LGA, the Tonimas Junction on the Aba-Owerri Expressway, and the popular Powerline area of the commercial city”.
Aba Power, Nigeria’s newest DisCo, has 31 feeders, four of which were covered in the earlier metering exercise that stopped three months ago.
“Our target is to meter at least 100,000 customers this year”, declared Engineer Blessing Ogbe, Aba Power’s Chief Operating Officer.
“That’s why we have hired the services of not just Eves Metering firm of China but also those of Kayz Consortium, a Nigerian group now moving its production site to our premises in the Osisioma Industrial Layout of Abia to enhance the speed of its operations.
“There is also the Chint Metering company of China that will soon start its state-of-the-art meter installation project”.
Expressing confidence that his company would meter every customer by the first part of next year, Engr Ogbe advised customers to get qualified and experienced electricians to ensure that each “customer has his or her own separate wires in a block of flats, as one meter is no longer allowed to serve two or more customers in a building.
“This is to make for transparency, efficient use of energy, and reduce conflicts and cheating by fraudulent and difficult electricity users who use electricity carelessly and yet refuse to pay for it, expecting their neighbours to bear the costs”.
Chief Alphonsus Udeigbo, the President General of the 22,000, Aba Landlords Development and Protection Association (ALPADA), welcomed what he described as “aba Power’s aggressive metering campaign”, pledging the willingness of the two groups he leads to cooperate in the meter rollout.”
Chief Udeigbo, who is also the president of the Abia State Amalgamated Traders Association (ASATA), “This is what all Aba people have been clamoring for, and we commend Aba Power for spending billions of naira in these difficult times to make each customer have a smart meter”.