EKEDP Points To Grid Work, Vandalism As Festac Residents Face Prolonged Blackouts

EKEDP Points To Grid Work, Vandalism As Festac Residents Face Prolonged Blackouts

Eko Electricity Distribution Plc has explained the cause of the extended power cuts affecting Festac Town, Amuwo Odofin and adjoining communities, blaming both national grid upgrades and repeated vandalism of underground cables.

According to a statement issued on Wednesday by the company’s General Manager, Corporate Communications, Abiola Aloba, the outages are largely linked to improvement works at the transmission level. The situation, EKEDP said, has been worsened by continuous attacks on its underground distribution network in Festac.

“Recent supply challenges in Festac have been driven principally by upgrades and improvement activities at the national transmission level. These outages were, however, compounded by sustained vandalism of underground distribution cables, for which the Festac axis regrettably records the highest incidence across the EKEDP network,” the DisCo stated.

The company disclosed that a new Festac 3 feeder has been completed and commissioned at the Ojo Transmission Station to serve as a backup supply route for Festac Town. Energisation of the feeder is pending final load balancing and approval from the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

On the Festac 1 33kV feeder, EKEDP said it has partially restored supply after isolating a damaged underground cable. Technicians, it added, are carrying out daily fault-tracing and repairs to fully restore service.

EKEDP further revealed that several hundred million naira has been invested to reinforce the electricity infrastructure in Festac and improve supply reliability once current issues are resolved.

The company urged residents and community leaders to safeguard power installations and promptly report any suspicious activities around cables, transformers and substations to prevent further disruptions.