Enugu Residents Lament 3-Day Power Outage

Residents of Trans-Ekulu and its environs in Enugu on Thursday, lamented the power outage currently being experienced in the area.

THE WHISTLER reports that the affected areas have been in total darkness since Tuesday.

A trader at Agu-Abor, one of the affected areas, Mazi John Omaga, said, “I have lost much as a result of this power outage. It has not been this bad before. My perishable goods are all gone. And we pay huge electricity bills every month.”

A frozen meat dealer at Trans-Ekulu, Mrs Ifeoma Ossai, said, “The current power outage is simply adding difficulties to our burden. To run businesses on generators with the hike in the prices of petroleum products is unacceptable. This government should have a human face. It has done everything wrongly recently because this is a wrong time to increase electricity tariffs as well as fuel prices. Sadly enough, power supply is not constant any longer.”

Meanwhile, the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, has given reasons why the affected areas were experiencing power outage. Its spokeman, Mr Emeka Eze, said the power outage currently being experienced was a result of an ongoing upgrade of the power transformer at the Trans-Ekulu Injection Substation, which affected Dhamija 11kv and Phase Six 11kv Feeders.

According to him, “The upgrade of the 7.5MVA power transformer to 15MVA, when completed, will drastically improve the quality of services to the affected customers, thereby increasing the capacity of the substation from 2 x 7.5MVA to 1 x 15MVA and 1 x 7.5MVA.

“As a result of this exercise, our customers at New GRA, St Mary, Dhamija, Upper North, RCC Quarters, Enugu-Onitsha expressway, Sani Abacha, Ugbo Odogwu and Agu-Abor will be out of power supply during the period of the upgrade, which is expected to last till Saturday, September 12, 2020.

“This upgrade underscores EEDC’s conscious efforts towards improving the capacity of its infrastructure and enhancing customer experiences. We therefore regret the inconveniences this will cause our esteemed customers, and assure them of better and improved services once this exercise is completed.”