Energy

Power Supply: Consumers demand debt rebate months after prepaid meter deployment

Published

6 years ago

September 12, 2018

grassroots

Following the deployment of thousands of prepaid meters by Ikeja Electric (IE) to its customers in Shomolu area of Lagos to further close the metering gap, some customers have appealed to the electricity distribution company to offer debt forgiveness on their accumulated outstanding.

Hitherto, the customers had lamented the burden of excessive and outrageous billing by the company, hence sought for pre-paid meters.

This made IE to deploy over 1,500 prepaid meters to the community recently. However, some communities in Shomolu are yet to migrate from the analogue meters or estimated billing to the prepaid meters.

Shomolu area of Lagos State is noted for its huge concentration of printers and other heavy electricity consumers

It was discovered that out of all the customers meter, about 660 are yet to migrate and utilize the new prepaid meters due to their inability to meet the demands of the disco in offsetting their previous accumulated bills.

The customers therefore seek a percentage discount on their huge outstanding debt.

Speaking on the issue, Chairman of Shomolu Community Development Committee (CDC), Mr. Adedapo Oduguwa, commended Ikeja Electric for the massive deployment of meters to Shomolu and environs, but advised the firm to ensure that migration of customers to the prepayment metering is made a lot easier by looking into the contentious issues relating to outstanding electricity bills.

“This will enable customers migrate immediately to recharge after exhausting the initial token installed in the meter. We request for debt forgiveness. So many properties are abandoned and not occupied but are still served bills which is mounting. It is not easy for some people to clear the backlog because it was previous occupiers of the buildings that accumulated the bills passed down for so many years. If the company makes the migration easy for us, we will be in a position to spread the gospel that meter is free just as the police will say bail is free,” he said.

In similar vein, president of the co-operative society of the association of printers in Shomolu, Chief Babajide Mark Anthony, expressed his joy at the new development and confirmed that the association is ready to cooperate with the DisCo to ensure smooth operation. He further advised the firm to fast-track the installation of meters and also attend to minor complaints on time, in order to build more trust and instill confidence in its customers.

The Business Manager of IE in charge of Shomolu, Engr. Taofeek Basanya, when contacted, said the company has made migration easy for customers. According to him, “we want consumers to come forward with their bills and pay 30 per cent of their outstanding, the rest can be spread out over a long period of time as long as they recharge their prepaid meters. Customers should not hide under the guise of community associations to frustrate the company’s efforts of metering more people, but should on individual basis come to our office to make their claims and dispute about their bills.”

In his reaction, IE’s Head of Corporate Communications, Felix Ofulue reiterated IE’s position to sustain the metering exercise in an equitable manner such that all category of customers that are yet to be metered will definitely benefit from the roll-out plan.

However, the company spokesman expressed concerns about the trend of asset compromise being witnessed in some the areas that have already been metered.

According to him, “our records reveal that a lot of customers who were recently metered, especially in Shomolu and environs have not vended or purchased units on their meters several weeks after exhausting the initial token. Typically, this is the process that should follow after the complimentary units on the prepaid meter have been exhausted.

He called on metered customers to resist the urge to bypass meters, rather urging them to manage their energy consumption prudently.

He also warned that IE would apply the authorized sanctions against any customer who engages in the act of meter bypassing.

Energy

AVEVA Appoints Joanna Mainguy as New Sustainability Accelerator Director

Published

2 months ago

March 13, 2024

grassroots

Joanna Mainguy, Sustainability Accelerator Director at AVEVA

Joanna Mainguy will steer strategies for sustainability innovation across AVEVA’s portfolio and partner ecosystem, furthering ESG targets for 2025 and beyond

AVEVA, a global leader in industrial software, driving digital transformation and sustainability, today announced the appointment of Joanna Mainguy as Sustainability Accelerator Director.

Joanna’s appointment testifies to AVEVA’s dedication to strengthening the company’s sustainability impact in line with advancing global climate commitments.

As Sustainability Accelerator Director, Joanna Mainguy will focus exclusively on sustainability solutions and strategies to accelerate innovation that will help AVEVA’s customers to achieve their net-zero targets.

She will look at how AVEVA leverages current market and customer analysis to inform its in-house development team, advise on new customer collaborations and on how AVEVA should grow its partnership network and M&A pipeline to reflect its sustainability priorities.

Joanna will lead the implementation of a sustainability solutions plan tailored to meet the most pressing needs of AVEVA’s industrial customers on low-carbon transition, circularity and resilience, via an integrated product, marketing and sales approach. She will work closely with AVEVA’s portfolio, business area and R&D leads to continue to develop new sustainability capabilities and drive collaboration on go-to-market initiatives that support industry with contributing to an accelerated energy transition and shift to a circular economy.

Joanna was formerly Industry Director, EMEA, for Energy & Sustainability at Microsoft, where she led strategic engagements with major energy providers and supported the energy transition with digital solutions. She has worked across the entire energy value chain and has more than 15 years of experience in process industries and the energy sector, including work for major system integrators, software and energy companies.

Lisa Wee, Global Head of Sustainability, AVEVA, said: “We are excited to welcome Joanna to AVEVA. She will bolster our mission to enable faster uptake of existing sustainability solutions across the industrial landscape, while in parallel we continue to invest in product capabilities and partnerships that will push out the frontiers of sustainability innovation for industry. At AVEVA we look to lead by example on sustainability and we achieved a 93% reduction in Scope 1 and 2 emissions last year. We aspire to help our customers better leverage digital solutions to realize their own ambitious sustainability targets early, and Joanna brings a wealth of experience to help support this.”

Commenting on her appointment, Joanna Mainguy, Sustainability Accelerator Director, AVEVA, said: “I am delighted to join AVEVA at such a pivotal time in its sustainability innovation and growth trajectory. I look forward to working with AVEVA teams and customers to continue to grow the sustainability benefits that can be achieved with AVEVA software. I am also keen to work closely with our partners to drive further positive change at scale, since we know addressing the climate crisis will continue to require expanded collaboration”.

AVEVA actively embeds sustainability into its core product strategy with specific capabilities in its software portfolio.

AVEVA’s software enables organizations to connect and contextualize key sustainability data with artificial intelligence and human insight, enhancing their agility, resilience and sustainability in order to help drive responsible use of the world’s resources.

AVEVA’s 2023 Sustainability Progress Report reveals significant progress across all three pillars of the company’s sustainability framework, encompassing product strategy, operations and culture.

Energy

Climate Change: NNPC Ltd/Total Energies JV Achieves Zero Gas Flare

Published

3 months ago

February 15, 2024

grassroots

In pursuit of meeting the targets of 20% (unconditional) and 47% (conditional) greenhouse gas emission reduction as contained in the Nationally Determined Contribution under the Paris Accord signed by the President Bola Ahmed Tinubu administration, the NNPC Ltd/TotalEnergies Joint Venture has achieved zero routine gas flare in all its assets.

According to a statement signed by Olufemi Soneye, Chief Corporate Communications Officer, NNPC Ltd., this feat was announced on Thursday during an inspection tour of OML 100 in South-eastern Niger Delta, off Port Harcourt, by a joint NNPC Ltd and TotalEnergies Team to ascertain the success of the OML Flare Reduction Project launched in December 2023.

The NNPC Ltd/TotalEnergies Joint Venture, which is the concession holder of four leases, had hitherto achieved zero routine flaring across OML 99 (2006), OML 102 (2014), and OML 58 (2016), leaving OML 100 as the only lease with routine flaring going on.

The significance of this achievement is that the last routine flare volume of about 12MMscf/d (twelve million standard cubic feet per day) of gas has now been eliminated giving rise to a greenhouse gas emissions reduction of about 341KtCO₂e/yr.

The achievement is an outcome of a programme introduced by the NNPC Ltd to galvanize action towards achieving the zero routine flare by 2030 across its portfolio of assets.

It is also a testament to NNPC Ltd’s prioritization of sustainability anchored on the ‘first R’ of its 5R Strategy (Reduce, Replace, Renew, Re-plant, Repurpose), as it strives to reduce its carbon footprint.

Work is ongoing across all other assets within NNPC Ltd’s Upstream Directorate to ensure that all assets achieve zero routine flaring by 2030 or earlier.

Energy

NNPC Celebrates 14,000bpd Production from Akpo West Field

By SANDRA ANI

Published

3 months ago

February 7, 2024

grassroots

In line with President Bola Ahmed Tinubu’s directive to the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Limited (NNPC Ltd) to optimise production from the nation’s oil and gas assets, the Company has announced the successful commencement of oil production from the Akpo West Field.

The milestone, which is the result of meticulous planning, strategic collaboration, and unwavering dedication from all stakeholders involved in the project, will add 14,000 barrels per day condensate to the nation’s production. This will be followed up by the production of about 4million cubic meters of gas per day by 2028.

The development of Akpo West which is on Petroleum Mining Lease (PML) 2 (formerly OML 130) leverages the existing Akpo Floating Production Storage and Offloading (FPSO) facility via a subsea tie-back to keep costs low and minimize greenhouse gas emissions.

The milestone was enabled by the strategic leadership of the Group Chief Executive Officer (GCEO), Mr. Mele Kyari, and the Upstream Directorate of the NNPC Ltd whose support played no small role in propelling the operators to actualise the short- and mid-term hydrocarbon production goal of the President Tinubu administration.

Located 135 kilometres offshore, Akpo West is one of the discoveries on PML 2 with proximity to the Akpo main which started up in 2009 and produced 124,000 barrels of oil equivalent per day in 2023.

PML 2 is operated by TotalEnergies with a 24% interest, in partnership with CNOOC (45%), Sapetro (15%), Prime 130 (16%), and the Nigerian National Petroleum Company Ltd as the concessionaire of the Production Sharing Contract (PSC).