PHED And Protracted Power Outage

More than one month after the Port
Harcourt Electricity Distribution
Company (PHED) gave notice of a power outage in Port Harcourt and its environs from July 13 – 23, a near total blackout of the city has gone on without any explanation for the benefit of consumers.
Keeping people in the dark concerning the situation for which an announcement was made detracts from the lofty purpose of a vibrant communication policy which the initial announcement tended to portray. The public deserves the courtesy of being told the constraints of PHED if any, to show due regard to the people.
We note that the planned 10-day power outage was to enable PHED attend to several faulty lines and vandalised infrastructure that needed to be replaced. Indeed, the company’s Public Affairs Manager, Mr. John Onyi, said the power cut was to enable the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) upgrade some sections of its transmission lines to enhance power wheeling capacity in order to provide better service.
The silence by PHED, in our thinking amounts to an unfortunate throw back to the inglorious days when its predecessors acted in ways that eroded public confidence in their operations and actually prompted the call for reform in the electricity sector.  The new electricity firms can therefore not afford to fail the people.
We hope, however that they realise that they are no longer government owned and should strive to embrace best corporate practices, including respecting contracts and ensuring consumer friendly communication.  This, we dare say is even in their best interest.
Electricity consumers should not have to strain themselves and beg for information on the progress of work or feed on hearsay on the success or otherwise of the re-stringing or conducting of cables being touted as the reason for the blackout.
Nigerians want to see that the privatization of the electricity sector ushers in a new regime of efficiency and corporate social responsibility policies that are particularly focused on a better company – consumer relations.
PHED cannot pretend to be un-aware of the harm they are invariably causing businesses in the area.  They have plunged the entire State into avoidable hardship as there is already a sharp increase in the price of kerosene and huge expenses by homes on the purchase of fuel to power electricity generators with attendant risks to public safety.
In spite of these unsavoury issues, PHED has continued to issue payment bills to consumers who have remained in blackout, and are carrying out disconnections without care for the interest of consumers.  This they do even against the policy that outlaws the collection of fixed charges after 15 days outage.  Sadly, buildings that have no metres are charged with metre maintenance fee.
The Tide is genuinely concerned that the protracted power outage could further expose PHED facilities to further danger.  This alone should make the management of the company and sister firms involved the rehabilitation programme to review their pace and strategy.
We think that PHED should respect its consumers by suspending the issuance of bills until power is restored. They should also improve on their information dissemination in order to give the impression that they have intergrity with a view  to earning public confidence.