NEMSA moves to enforce rules in electricity supply

Worried about the spate of electrocutions in the country, the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) has commenced a tour of electrical installations across the country with the aim of enforcing technical standards and regulations.

NEMSA will make additional efforts to test and certify all categories of electrical installations, power systems, electricity meters and other instruments to ensure delivery of safe, reliable and sustainable electricity.

It was learnt that the major target of the agency is to minimize, and possibly eradicate, fire accidents arising from unwholesome practices, bad installations and poor quality of materials.

Managing Director of NEMSA, Peter Ewesor, who announced the fresh efforts in an interview with The Guardian, spoke after an integrity tour of facilities and installations of the Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company.

He said his agency was working to ensure that no electrical contractor or electrician carries out any electrical installation work in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and other related places without having been certified competent by NEMSA.

“We are on a monitoring and evaluation tour of networks at the distribution sub-sector of the Nigerian power sector to see what the electricity distribution companies are doing to correct and repair most of the dilapidated networks.

“We have seen the network and we found out that there are areas that they need to work on. There are some which I want them to start working on now to ensure that they don’t constitute hazards or cause problems within the power sector.

For instance, if any of the conductors we showed to the Kaduna Disco should drop, the effect is usually very devastating. We have made it known to them. They have assured that they would start working on them. We will follow up to crosscheck and see that they have done what we asked them to do.

In Kaduna, for example, the ones that need urgent attention are the ones where they have used wooden polls. Many are at the verge of collapsing,” the NEMSA boss said.

On how to check fire outbreaks caused by electrical installations in houses, he advised consumers to ensure that their installations meet the required standards.

He explained: “In some cases, you find that somebody has wired his house for single phase meter, then he starts changing fuses and so on. He is killing the system in his house, because he overloads a particular phase. One, you burn the transformer and then you put yourself and others around you out of supply.”

Ewesor, who doubles as the Chief Electrical Inspector of the Federation, charged consumers: “Please ensure that your electrical installations are proper and right.”