By Adewale Sanyaolu 

A recent claim by the Nigerian Systems Operations Department of the Transmission Company of Nigeria(TCN) that it generated 4,068.40 megawatts yesterday, may have been punctured by most consumer’s lamentations that power generation figure announced was not commensurate with supply.

Electricity consumers in Lagos, Ogun, Ibadan, Osun who spoke to Daily Sun since the weekend claimed that the power supply situation has gone from bad to worse, forcing them to spend more on alternative power generation. For instance, consumers in New Oko-Oba, Abule Egba, of Lagos State lamented that since the resumption of normal operational activities by Ikeja Electric on Friday, power supply has been cut off from their community, leaving them in darkness.

Residents under the Ikeja Electric network, which has the highest allocation because  as very few areas enjoyed appreciable power supply in the last three weeks.

In Surulere and Lekki axis, residents and businesses complained that they hardly get up to two hours of supply in a day. Surulere and Lekki areas are covered by Eko Electricity Distribution.

‘‘I can tell you categorically that Eko Disco is the worst of all Discos in this country. We go for days without power supply, yet they continue to slam us with estimated bills. While other Discos are making effort to improve on the level of service, nothing is being done here.

We have clamoured for prepaid meters, but nothing is forthcoming. I think the time is rife for NERC to wield the big stick against Eko Disco. NERC should beam its searchlight on Discos activities,’’ said Julius Ekanem, who lives in Lekki area of Lagos.

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But despite the poor power supply to homes and offices, power allocation statistics  obtained from TCN website yesterday, indicated that supply to Discos was on the upscale compared to what they received last week.

A breakdown of the distribution from TCN to the Discos showed that Ikeja Disco got the highest allocation of 610.26mw,followed closely by Ibadan Disco with 528.89, Abuja Disco:467.87mw,Eko Disco:447.52mw,Benin D i s c o : 3 6 6 . 1 6 m w, K a n o Disco:325.47mw,Kaduna D i s c o : 3 2 5 . 4 7 , P o r t Harcourt:264.45mw and Yola:142.39mw.

In a related development, TCN Lagos Region, has explained that the blackout in Lekki, Ajah, Lagos Island, Ikoyi, Ibeju and its environs since Sunday, March 13,was as a result of a detachment on the sky wire of the Egbin-Ajah 330KV Transmission Line 3 which feeds the areas.

‘‘Our team of maintenance engineers are already at work to rectify the fault as quickly as possible, with the aim of getting customers back to the system,’’  it stated.

As at Sunday, statistics from the TCN website, indicated that power generation peaked at 3,098.80mw as at 01:27:00, which was almost double the capacity as at Wednesday, when it was 1,580.6mw.

Recall that power supply to households and businesses across the country plunged by 1,589.69 megawatts after it surged to a peak generation of 5,074.70MW on February 2.