PHCN Explains Power Outage In Eket

The Eket Business Unit of the Power Holding Company of
Nigeria (PHCN) has attributed the prolonged power outage in the area to the
breakdown of the 190-megawatt Ibom power plant.

Mr Offiong Itabong, Public Affairs Officer of the unit said
that the company had disconnected Eket from the national grid.

The disconnection is to pave way for the construction of
transmission infrastructure to evacuate the energy generated by the plant to
other parts of the state.

“Ibom power plant has been out of supply as a result of some
technical problems which will soon be resolved.

“Following the ongoing upgrade of the transmission line from
Uyo to Eket, which is expected to last for about 50 days, Eket has been
disconnected from the national grid.

“The entire Eket Business Unit, comprising 12 local
government areas, now rely 100 per cent on the Ibom power plant ,” Itabong
said.

He said the power supply to Eket would be restored as soon
as the independent power plant was fixed.

He appealed to the public to bear with the PHCN as it was
working to restore normalcy in the area.

The outage, which entered its fourth day on Thursday, has
taken its toll on economic activities in the area.

The Tide checks in Eket showed that small business operators
had resorted to buying petrol at N140 per litre to run their generators.

Effiong Udeme, a barber, told Our correspondent  that the outage had been worsened by the high
cost of fuel.