Federal inspector orders Enugu Disco to replace installations

FOR the safety of lives and property, as well as quality supply of power for economic and other ends, the nation’s Chief Electrical Inspector, Peter Ewesor, has asked the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) to immediately replace the dilapidated electrical installations and networks in parts of Enugu State.

Ewesor, who is also the Managing Director, Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA), described the clustered electric wires, improper installations, weak and old electric poles as a disaster waiting to happen.

He advised the EEDC to always maintain technical standards and regulation to ensure safety of lives and property of electricity consumers in the area.

Ewesor, who led a team of NEMSA officials on an inspection tour of installed power systems and networks in Enugu yesterday, emphasised that EEDC could not afford to compromise standard because of the inherent danger associated with electricity, insisting that such disaster should be avoided by all means.

“Most of the things we are seeing are actually disaster waiting to happen,” he said. “The other pole (pointing to an old, wooden pole about to collapse on Obioma Street in Uwani) is almost giving way, and if it should fall on the road when power supply is available, it will be a disaster.”

He continued: “Most of the systems here are in disarray. Where you see a house, for example, part of it is directly under the electric line and somebody is using what we call PVC pipe to create an insulation.

“That PVC pipe can never provide the insulation the line is supposed to have because the insulation is trying to make sure that current or power does not go outside the confined conductor.

“As it is now, they have put an insulator which cannot sustain the power flowing through that particular conductor, and if the thing should fall, that house is not protected. That insulation cannot stand, it will melt and there will be disaster.”

Meanwhile, Ewesor said the inspection tour was part of his agency’s mandate to ensure compliance with technical standards and safety regulations, adding that unless standards are complied with, certain areas of the state would continue to suffer poor electricity supply.

He further explained that “cobweb” of electric wires or lines, where even the 11kv line, which carries power to transformers and from where the kilo voltage lines are fed into houses, is seen resting on the kilo voltage, is dangerous because the kilo voltage will simply send 11,000 voltage into the houses and setting them aflame.