By Suleiman Anyalewechi
The Management of Kano Electricity Distribution Company KEDCO has blamed its inability in recent time to satisfy the power needs of its consumer base on the short fall in the amount of power in the National Grid .
The Acting Managing Director of KEDCO Alhajj Abubakar Yusuf who disclosed this on Tuesday March 12 2024Â at a media briefing in Kano,lamented that the inadequate power supply from the National Grid has forced the power distribution outfit to resort to load shedding.
“In the last three months, we have been receiving an average of 180 MW . This is grossly below the required average of 300 MW to sufficiently Supply our numerous customers in the three states of our operation…….For the purpose of another mention ,we are power distributors and we rely on what is generated and transmitted to us for distribution.
“This regrettable development has forced us to engage in massive load shedding of our feeders ,in a bid to serve our customers with the meagre quantum of energy available to us .” Yusuf stated.
According to him , the problem of inadequate power supply from the National Grid is not peculiar to KEDCO ,but a general one which all the relevant authorities and stakeholders are working hard to fix.
Alhaji Yusuf also lamented the negative impact ,the activities of vandals and other criminal elements are having on the operational capacity of the KEDCO,noting that the establishment experiences no fewer than 3 ( three ) cases of vandalism daily.
” This has severely hampered our operations and abilities to carry out our services effectively. Aside from the huge sums of money involved in replacing vandalized equipment ,the heinous acts throw our customers into darkness before repairs and or replacement takes place.
“We are using this opportunity to appeal to our customers to assist in safeguarding these infrastructures within their communities.
“Regrettably, another major set back we are experiencing is non or underpayment of electricity bills as well as energy theft by some customers .
“This also hinders our abilities to fully pay for the electricity we have been supplied by the Generation and Transmission arms of the power sector .This is contributing to the liquidity crises in the the power sector ,inhibiting the capacity to generate ,transmit and distribute more power,….
“On a sad note, on Sunday, March 10, 2024 ,there was a fire outbreak at the Dan Agundi Transmission Station in kano which affected some critical power infrastructure at the transmission end.
While this had temporarily affected supply to some major areas ,we thank God that our TCN counter parts have been able to salvage the situation.”
The KEDCO Chief Executive ,however announced that plans are a foot for its core investor – FEA to  build up to 200MW of incremental capacity through. 100 mini- grids and embedded generation,to augment electricity supply.
