IBEDC laments vandalism, theft of electricity infrastructure in franchise areas

TManagement of Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company ( IBEDC) has lamented vandalism and theft of electricity infrastructure in its franchise areas.

According to the distribution company ( Disco), that is one of the factors contributing to the current state of power supply within its franchise, resulting in disruptions and inconveniences for residents and businesses.

Disclosing this in a statement yesterday, IBEDC said an example was the unfortunate vandalism of the Transmission Company of Nigeria ( TCN) towers in Ogun State in May 2023, which resulted in over seven months of darkness for many of its valued customers.

It noted: “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 aluminium 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, metre bypass and illicit metres 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.”

The power distribution company also identified low supply of gas to generating companies ( Gencos), leading to a gradual decrease in available generation to the grid.

Despite these challenges, IBEDC expressed optimism that poor supply would soon become a thing of the past, saying Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has taken urgent steps to address the gas supply issue, while the firm is currently partnering with security agencies to reduce energy theft and vandalism.