Ikeja Electric announces electricity upgrade in listed areas

By SUMAYYAH ADEFAKA

Lagos State residents will experience power outage in some areas, for a period of eight weeks, as a result of electricity upgrade that will commence on October 11, the Ikeja Electric PLC has said.

The Chief Technical Officer of the distribution company, Olajide Kumapayi, confirmed this development while addressing reporters in Ikeja, Lagos State capital on Monday.

He said that the project, which would be embarked upon by the Transmission Commission of Nigeria (TCN), will begin on October 11.

He said that the project was aimed at increasing the capacity of transmission lines to wheel more power from the generation companies.

Areas that will be affected by the eight weeks power shutdown, include Oregun, Police College, Oba Akran, Oke Ira, Ogba, Magodo, Anifowoshe and Omole Phase I.

Mr. Olajide Kumapayi noted that the need for the upgrade is due to to some of 132KV lines that had become obsolete and degraded owing to time and usage, installed over 50 years ago.

According to him, the TCN is currently embarking on the upgrade of the 132KV lines from Ikeja West to Ota and Alimosho in stages. This is the second stage.

“The TCN is replacing all the aluminum conductors with gap conductors which is more sophisticated to withstand heat and has more capacity to carry current.

“The implication of this is that from 8a.m. to 6p.m. everyday, the substations controlling these areas will be switched off, which will affect the feeders connected to them.

“This will affect all categories of customers within the area especially our Maximum Demand (MD) customers such as Ikeja City Mall, Police College, Lagos State University Teaching Hospital and the Ikeja High Court.”

He added that the TCN would also move to Alimosho and Agege axis during the next stage, noting that the upgrade was a power sector initiative to boost transmission and distribution of electricity to Nigerians.

On reaching business organizations and industries that will be affected by the power shutdown, the company’s Head, Corporate Communications, Felix Ofulue, said that the DisCo had written to MD customers, notifying them of the situation.

He added that the company was also meeting with its bilateral power supply agreement partners and appealed to all affected to exercise patience with the company during the period.

“Even though this is a TCN project, it is our duty to inform our customers of the situation because we are the ones that interface with them on a daily basis.

“We believe it will be for the benefit of our customers at the end of the day and will also allow Ikeja Electric to invest more in our system to improve power supply to customers under our network,” Ofulue said.