Nigerians have lamented that despite the breakdown of power plants, which has disrupted power supply for about three weeks, their electricity bill has not reduced.
The Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, has stated that the cause of the power outage being experienced in parts of the country has to do with the breaking down of eight power plants.
The minister added that about seven other plants are experiencing gas constraints while the Jebba Power Plant was “shut down for annual maintenance.”
Mamman stated these on his Twitter handle on Thursday as Nigerians lamented the socio-economic inconveniences the poor power supply was having on their lives and businesses.
The minister said, “I sincerely regret the recent power outages across the nation and the difficulties it has brought with it, and wish to assure my fellow Nigerians that everyone involved is working assiduously to restore the national grid to its previous historical levels and exceed that.
“The problem is caused by the breakdown of some National Integrated Power Plants supplying electricity to the national grid. The plants are namely, Sapele, Afam, Olonrunsogo, Omotosho, Ibom, Egbin, Alaoji and Ihovbor. The Jebba Power Plant was shut down for annual maintenance.
“Seven other integrated power plants, namely Geregu, Sepele, Omotosho, Gbarain, Omuku, Paras and Alaoji are experiencing gas constraints while the Shiroro hydroelectric power plant has water management issues.”
Meanwhile, some Nigerians have lamented that despite the breakdown of power plants, which has disrupted power supply for about three weeks, their electricity bill has not reduced.
For instance, Afamsson (@afamsson) on Twitter, said, "I received March 2021 bill from @IkejaElectric yesterday. It was same bill we paid for February, why do we have to pay for darkness when the national grid is down? Fancy words are good but we need actions, people are rightly provoked, tell Discos (electricity distribution companies) to apply wisdom to avoid stories."
Similarly, Segun (@Segunpro), responding to Afamsson, tweeted, "Yours is even better. We received 525% increase in our bills. For safe explanation, normal bills is 8k (N8, 000) per month, but we received 50k (N50, 000) bill for last month being the month with the worst supply ever. What @IkejaElectric cannot do does not exist!"
Another Twitter user, Abu (@AbusaniJoker) added: "What happens is when there is less power supply, less money is generated from prepaid meters. DISCOs have monthly targets, so the shortfall is what they divide and share as estimated bills. So if you are not using prepaid meter, you pay more when there is less power supply. Crazy."