PHED restores electricity to Port Harcourt after a week blackout
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) says it has completed repairs of faulty Elelenwo transmission station that led to blackout in several parts of Port Harcourt.
Mr John Onyi, PHED’s Manager, Corporate Communications, announced this in a statement in Port Harcourt on Tuesday.
He said the station located in Elelenwo community supplied electricity to major economic areas of the city, including Onne Sea Port, and the Oil and Gas Free Trade Zone.
“We are happy to announce the restoration of Elenlenwo Transmission Station, which caused an outage that lasted for seven days.
“The station was discovered to have faulty direct connection and breaker which made it impossible to supply six outgoing 33/11 KV feeders at RSTV, Igbo Etche, Timber, Onne, Eleme and Elelenwo.
Onyi said that repair works were concluded by the company’s technical crew on May 13.
“So, as a result of the forced outage, customers at Oyigbo, Elelenwo, old Oyigbo, Onne, Eleme, Igbo Etche and some parts of Aba road were affected.
“PHED appreciates the patience of customers while the outage lasted. The company will continue to do its best to satisfy customers at all times,” the PHED spokesman assured.
Economic Confidential recalls mid last year when Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company has blamed the persisting blackout in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers on ruptured of gas-bearing pipelines to power stations in the states.
Corporate Communications Manager of the company, John Onyi, had explained then that the company was taking steps to quickly restore electricity to customers in the states.
Onyi also added that “the current poor power supply being experienced since June 15 is partly caused by technical issues on wells belonging to Shell Oil Company.
“The power supply challenge, according to Transmission Company of Nigeria, occurred on June 15 and has resulted to massive load-shedding in the South-South region and Nigeria as a whole.
“PHED has been assured that the situation is not completely out of control as top management and technical crew of TCN have already started finding solution to getting it fixed.”
Onyi said that the company would ensure that electricity received from the national grid, based on the current power situation, would be evenly distributed and aligned to systematic load-shedding.
He appealed to customers to bear with the company for the inconveniences the outage may cause during the period repair of the pipeline would last.