The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has identified low supply of gas, vandalism, energy theft, scheduled maintenance and payment apathy as the factors contributing to the current poor power supply within its franchise in Oyo, Ogun, Osun, Kwara, and partly in Kogi, Niger and Ekiti states.

In a statement released on Sunday by the management of the IBEDC, over 40 incidents of vandalism on critical power infrastructures have been recorded within the last three months.

It also maintained that theft of valuable assets including aluminum conductors, transformer oil, cables poses significant challenge to the operation of the company.

The Company said it has noticed an alarming upsurge of energy theft, with over 1,450 identified cases between January and February 2024 alone.

“Vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructures remains a major issue negatively impacting power supply. An example is the unfortunate vandalism of TCN towers in Ogun state in May 2023 which resulted in over 7 months of darkness for many of our valued customers.

“At IBEDC we are particularly confronted with the escalating cases of vandalism, with over 40 incidents recorded in 2024 alone. The theft of valuable assets such as transformer oil, cables and aluminum conductors pose a significant challenge to our operations, as communities affected are thrown into extended periods of outage depending on the severity of the act.

“Energy theft through illegal connections, meter bypass and illicit meters are also major issues affecting adequate supply of power to customers, because they result in revenue losses and liquidity problems for the electricity value chain.

“We have also noticed an alarming upsurge, with over 1,450 identified cases of energy theft between January and February 2024.”

It stated further that scheduled maintenance activities conducted by the TCN in January and March 2024 necessitated planned outages in specific areas of its network.

“While these measures are essential for ensuring the long-term reliability of electricity infrastructure, we recognise the inconvenience they may cause and sincerely apologise for any disruptions experienced by our customers,” the company pleaded.

The distribution company identified payment apathy from customers as a major challenge to an adequate supply of power.

It stated  further “Unfortunately, across our customer segments, we have different mindsets that electricity is a social service and should not be paid for; some only pay part of the bill, while others don’t pay because they haven’t received their preferred hours of supply.

“To all our customers, our appeal is simple, please pay for whatever hours of supply you have consumed in addition to the outstanding bills to enable IBEDC survive and become sustainable as this is the guarantee for improved power supply”.

IBEDC said it remains optimistic that poor supply will soon become a thing of the past, saying the Minister of Power, Adelabu has taken urgent steps to address the gas supply issue.

“On energy theft and vandalism, we are currently partnering with security agencies to reduce this vice. However, we urge our customers to remain vigilant, protect electrical infrastructures within their communities, and report any suspicious activities promptly.

“We are implementing comprehensive measures to improve and strengthen our infrastructure in order to efficiently distribute the power we receive from the grid.  We are also urgently exploring alternate sources of power to enable us to meet the power supply needed within our franchise,” the firm submitted.