…3 agencies debut

By Adedotun Ajayi

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To make electricity available to the people of Ondo State and break the monopoly of the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC), the State Government has established three agencies.
The agencies are; Ondo State Electricity Regulatory Bureau, the Ministry of Energy and Ondo State Power Company.
These agencies are in addition the already existing Ondo State Electricity Board.
Acting coordinator, Ondo State Electricity Regulatory Bereau, Mr Stephen Bolawole disclosed that on Dec 31, 2020 a Law named Ondo State Electric Power Sector 2020, was signed into law, which replaced the old electricity law before that date.
“The new law deals with the rural electricity where we have the old National Electric Power Authority; some communities that are several kilometers away from the last pole, electricity will be generated through solar energy and distributed to them, he said.
The Hope learnt that such project is already at an advanced stage at Ojana in Owo, while in Akure, one is already going on at the Deji’s palace and another one at Alagbaka.
All the projects will generate power and distribute and after sometimes, the one at the Deji’s palace might be distributing power to all the street lights in Akure.
“We will look at the community around the location of the project and look at the consumption power and what is left will be for streetlights. Now, that is generation, transmission and distribution, the company in charge will take over the responsibilities of old NEPA’s job, not even BEDC, because the BEDC will only distribute. They don’t generate and they don’t transmit,” he said.
Meanwhile, the state government has warned the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) it will not condone arbitrary and estimated billing of customers in the state.
The Acting Coordinator of the Ondo State Electricity Regulatory Bureau, Mr Stephen Bolawole, who conveyed the decision to BEDC, warned that the days of arbitrary billings were over in the state.
Bolawole said the company’s mandate was drawn from the Ondo State Electricity Power Sector Law 2020.
He said the issue of arbitrary over billing of customers in the state has become an issue with some households in the state because of the pains they experience every month from BEDC notoriety.
Investigations by The Hope revealed that many houses without prepaid meters are in the category of those being overbilled by the company with some houses paying between N17,500 to N38,000 monthly.
Many companies on their own are also going through the harrowing experience as they pay through their noses as a result of the overwhelming billing.
Speaking with The Hope, a customer, Mr Gbenga Odenusi, lamented that his monthly billing is over N15,000 since he is not using prepaid meter.
He said: “It was a terrible experience before I got brought more than N15,000 bill every month and they called it commercial billing. I don’t produce anything in my house, except the fact that I use a few house appliances.”