Solomon Ilomechine
Residents of Kwale, the headquarters of Ndokwa West Local Government area of Delta State, have lamented over the continual electricity blackout in the city for three years.
One of the residents, John Odubu, said the sudden disconnection from the source of power supply for the past years has really affected businesses and caused high inflation in the cost of living in the city.
He further stated that the power outage in the city has led to unbearable hardship for the people, thus driving development away from the people.
In his reaction, “I spend money daily to get ice blocks to chill the water and drinks I sell because when they are not, customers tend not to patronize. At times I get this block for N300 per one and after getting it, the days I don’t make many sales then all the block just goes to waste.
In a situation where there is light, I would keep my water and drinks in the fridge and even if I don’t sell all of them that day, I have nothing to lose compared to when I buy two to three blocks daily and after a few hours, the ice block ends up turning to ordinary water.”
Mr. Henry Okweshine, another resident of the city, revealed that the continuous blackout in the city has been a thing of sadness for people in the city.
He said, “Some people can’t even charge their gadgets in the comfort of their homes. They either spend N50 or in some places N100 to charge their phones at a charging outlet popularly known as ‘pay charge’, while some go to betting shops or barbershops to charge their phones gadgets. In the process, some people do lose their phones because they are sometimes stolen.”
A former worker at the electricity distribution company Mr. Orji Ruben while reacting said the deplorable state of electricity in the city was a result of fallen utility poles, vandalization of most electrical materials in the city; transformers, amour cables, uprising cables, and transmission cables.
While he mentioned that the city is not directly connected to any national grid that supplies power to be another cause, he added that a great proportion of them do not switch off their security light during the day, while some do not switch off their electrical appliances ( refrigerator, ceiling fans, inner electric bulbs e.t.c) when leaving the house, these are the causes according to him.
“This has led to the high estimated electricity bill given to them by BEDC. The unnecessary energy wastage could lead to overloading and tripping of the electric power at the power station.
“There was a need then, for the residents of the city to conserve electric energy by switching off their electrical appliances at the odd time as it would have helped protect the 33 KVA transmission line but they did not.
“The national independent power producer (NIPP) or non-utility generator is on a project to restore direct power supply to the whole of Ndokwa Nation and that the project has been on now for a while but he didn’t give a specification as to when the project will be completed”, Ruben added.
The City Electricity Source
Our study shows that the city of Kwale is powered by the 33 KVA transmission line that comes directly from the Ughelli power station. The transmission line supplies electricity to three local government areas; Isoko North, Isoko South, and Kwale.
The total length of the transmission line is about 80KM and it spans from the Ughelli power station and terminates in Kwale. The Ughelli power station is managed by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) which serves customers in Delta state, Edo state, Ondo state, and Ekiti state.
During a survey on the 33 KVA transmission line transmitting electricity from the Ughelli power station down to Kwale, it was discovered that the transmission line contained a lot of faulty points. Ranging from sagging transmission cables to missing insulators, and attached pin insulators to utility poles due to lack of cross arm.
It was also observed at many points that the right way of 11m approved by the NIS is not adhered to. According to NIS, transmission line construction in the Nigeria power sector must meet the IEC 60826 provision. Moreso some cables were overgrown with trees and this is unsafe for both the residents of the area and the power transmission system.
The tendency of the cables being bridged during light breeze or rain is higher since wet materials (woods) are good conductors of electricity.
Speaking about this, another resident, Dominic, recommended that the entire 33 KVA distribution lines are overhauled and new high-power capacity step-down transformers are provided for the city.
According to him, “If the entire 33 KVA transmission lines are overhauled and new high power capacity transformers are made available, majority of the issues leading to the blackout would have been solved and this would help revive business activities and bring more socio-economic development to the city because this city is an oil producing area well know in Nigeria and Africa.
“I am using this opportunity to appeal to the State Government, the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) and the National Integrated Power Project (NIPP), to restore electricity to the city as soon as possible to make living in the city Worthy of it.”
