Energy Theft, Vandalism Bane Of Electricity Distribution ― ANED

The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) has called for an end to the menace of energy theft and vandalism as they impact the performance of Distribution Companies as well as the amount of energy distributed to electricity consumers.

The Executive Director, Research and Advocacy, ANED, Sunday Oduntan, made the call during an interaction session with electricity consumers within the network of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) on Thursday, September 15, 202
The session, which had as its theme, ‘Building Consumer Awareness and Strengthening the Customer Service Capacity of Electricity Distribution Companies’ is supported by the MacArthur Foundation.

Oduntan maintained that energy theft and vandalism of properties can be tackled through collaboration between communities and DisCos. He called on communities to guard their properties against vandals and to report energy theft through by-passing, to DisCos.

He said: “The amount of energy that is stolen in this country is so much that it has impacted our ability to deliver service. I told the customers here that in a community, transformers are not put inside the bush or by the corner. People need to secure their transformers to enable us to provide the service that they need.

“The way forward is more collaboration and cooperation between the service providers and the communities and more communication. Sometimes, there is a disconnect in terms of awareness. We need to let our customers know what we are doing and what we need to do.

“Electricity supply has improved in recent weeks all over the country but we are not there yet; we are not where we need to be.”