…apart from these latent disagreements, I also heard govt has given money to the REA to revamp rural electricity facilities. But the real money making consumers are in the urban and semi urban centers. These urban consumers pay them bills and so are of more economic importance. If the PHCN privatization was to work, govt should revamp instead urban distribution facilities to sure up investors confidence and reduce frictions at take over as it is being reported that PHCN worker have vowed also to resist the takeover. We may have black outs in the early stages of the takeover but the fact remains that the present crop of PHCN workers should make themselves employable in the private sector. Because in the private sector it is not unionism but your productivity that counts in the market place…whether it is compulsory the new investors retain them all as workers is another legal mater all together because after them severance pay, many of us observers do not deem them as automatic employees of the emerging managements structures at the discos and gencos…I think that many of them should be asked to reapply for the jobs noting also that there were very poorly motivated workers who have relied on extortions and bribes in them work places to survive…if they were to be completely retained, what kind of salaries would the investors be paying them? only the investors can answer this..there is therefore need to also sort out these issues before takeover… …But if govt was more concerned with the REA facilities as to pump billions to it, it may seem that there is more emphasis at providing electricity the poor who may not be able to pay them bills. This is allowed by the enabling laws, but at this early stages of privatization, i would say that urban distribution facilities need to be ungraded to provide more relief substations and other overhead line service facilities to avoid the popular “candle light” syndrome in the quality power delivered to consumers. we need to also revamp many of our 33/1kV injections substations facilities to reduces power outages. Replace some failed power transformer at 132kV and 330kV TS installations. This will boost consumer confidence and assure investors of the needed cash flow for sustainable growth in the sector. There has to be an aggressive policy shift also in metering at the urban centers as this is where most people pay them electricity bills, but people are also not sure what they really consumed due to lack of meters. The era of estimated bills needed to be made a thing of the past by expanding the catchment of pre-paid metering system currently being pursued to reduce manpower dependence in the billing and tariff collection system or an outright application of smart meters that also allows you to check on consumers connection integrity and accounts from a web based host computer system that is found in the more advanced metering systems overseas…I think our collectible rate is been put at about 50% and this is largely due to meters… …power distribution has always been the weak link in the power and energy sector. Govt need to strengthen it even after take over by inventors so we may all have “Light” as they call it Nigeria…and so that the current privatization efforts may succeed..
Posted on: Mon, 09 Sep 2013 04:29:32 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015