AEDC boosting innovation, to connect 100 communities — MD

The Managing Director of AEDC, Dr. Ernest Mupwaya, said the company has embraced innovations to boost electricity access while extending new electricity connections to over 100 communities across its franchise area of Kogi, Abuja, Nasarawa and Niger states.

Mupwaya spoke when he received the Chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Prof. James Momoh at the DisCo’s headquarters in Abuja on Tuesday.

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In a presentation, he said the innovations include adopting Information and Communication technology (ICT) and partnering with renewable energy firms to expand electricity supply services across the four states.

“We are cooperating with some partners. There are areas where we must explore renewable energy like solar power. We are cooperating with partners who are in this business and we have identified over 100 sites and we are seeing interests in these sites. We are going to see a big relief in that area,” he said.

Mupwaya however said the gap in tariff issues had slowed investments in the power sector but lauded NERC for introducing the new Service Base Tariff (SBT).

The AEDC head also said the DisCo has been engaging customers on safety practices and the consequences of meter bypass as well as energy theft.

Prof. Momoh commended AEDC on its deployment of state-of-the-art technologies. “In my opinion, you are on the right track; we hope that the gaps that you have identified especially with respect to tariffs are something that the entire commission has sleepless nights on. And at least at the end of the day, the entire commission will take credit that during our own tenure, we are able to have a paradigm shift,” he said.