Who do Nigerian electricity customers hold on account of improper load shedding? There have been series of blame games and no utility is ready to accept responsibility for a fault.
The transmission company of Nigeria (TCN) has categorically emphasised that it is not to blame for the ceaseless load shedding experienced by electricity consumers. The General Manager Public Affairs TCN, Mrs. Ndidi Mbah stated that TCN has nothing to do with the distribution of electricity to consumers and cannot switch off consumer feeders. Its jurisdiction on the network is from 330 kilovolts (kV) to 132kV power lines (learn more).
Distribution companies have always tagged this constraint to transmission networks explaining that TCN transmits more power to areas of less demand. However, from our knowledge of load shedding, it occurs when the electricity demand exceeds supply, and to prevent a collapse, people need to be cut off from power.
Utility companies use load shedding so that the accessible electricity is fairly shared between the consumers. They usually alternate between different parts and time plan to ensure that at least everyone gets to have power for a period of time.
The fact is areas are disconnected from the power supply by distributors switching off the feeder serving that area. A feeder is a high-voltage line that could supply from anywhere from a few hundred to many thousands of consumers. TCN has lamented consistently that they have no control over these feeders, except during emergencies requiring operations crew to quickly operate such feeder to allow maintenance service.
To pen down, this clarification of load shedding comes on the heels of public misapprehension on the recent increase in load shedding tagged on TCN. It, therefore, means that load shedding arises from technical difficulties of the respective DisCo.