Uche Cecil Izuora
Aba Power, is engaging four local and foreign firms to assemble smart electricity meters in Aba, the Abia State economic nerve centre.
The disclosure was made by Mrs. Agatha Nnaji, Group Managing Director of the Geometric Power group, the Aba Power parent company, when the Abia State House of Assembly on Power and Public Utilities visited the company’s headquarters in the Osisioma Industrial Layout.
“The four companies will produce the meters in our premises here”, Mrs. Nnaji told the lawmakers led by the Hon Aaron Uzodike while making a 3D-model presentation.
“By assembling them here, a lot of jobs will be created for our people, up to 35,000 by the latest estimate.
“Together with our partners, we help the country save scarce foreign reserves and help transfer technology to the Nigerian people”.
The firms to assemble the meters include Kayz Consortium led by Prince Kalu and Eve Metering Company headed by Soji Olagunji, a Nigerian entrepreneur based in China.
Others are Chint Metering and DCESN Metering which are based in China.
Kayz is set to start production this month and followed by Eve.
While Chint, DCESN, and Kayz are going to assemble 20,000 meters each, Eve will deliver 100,000.
“Our goal”, declared Engineer Alfred Atenega, head of the metering team at Aba Power, ‘is to deliver 20,000 prepaid meters to our customers every month so that every customer will have a smart meter within 12 months”.
It is not clear whether the four meter companies will produce exclusively for Aba Power or also for other 11 DisCos in the country, but a source working for one of the firms who asked our correspondent not not to reveal his identity because he is not authorized to speak to the media on the matter, said that “we are likely to start providing only for Aba Power for now and later produce for the other electricity companies in our nation because they all need quality smart meters.
“I don’t think Professor Bart Nnaji, the Geometric Power chief executive, and his team will object to making such meters made from their premises available to their peers”.
Expressing satisfaction with he called Geometric Power’s innovative approach to the electricity business, the Abia State Assembly Power and Public Utilities Committee chair asked the utility to provide electricity to remote communities which have been cut off from supplies for several years.
Aba Power Managing Director Ugo Opiegbe disclosed that with the ongoing rehabilitation of a number of failed and vandalized facilities in the Aba Ring-fenced Area covering nine of the 17 local government areas in Abia State, “the neglected and underserved communities that were forgotten for several decades before we came to Aba will have a new lease of life”.
The Hon Uzodike also urged Aba Power to work out an arrangement to accommodate customers in arrears of payment, to which Engr Blessing Ogbe, Aba Power chief operating officer, responded, saying that such an arrangement is already in place.
He stated: “We understand the burden on customers and have made room for instalment-based payment.
“Customers who had earlier buried their customers due to billing concerns are now returning to reactivate them because the meters have brought transparency”.
Another member of the legislative committee, The Hon Stephen Ucheonye Akachukwu, said that his colleagues “have been interacting with Aba residents, and the feedback has been overwhelmingly positive.
“The people are excited over the transparency the smart meters bring”.