By Jonathan Ugbal: Government House Correspondent, David Nsa and Philip Agba
Cross River Governor, Senator Ben Ayade is mulling sustainable solutions to the epileptic power situation faced by residents via the introduction of LED street lighting, embedded generations among other options.
Mr. Ayade disclosed this while on routine inspection of projects in the southern senatorial district of the state on Saturday where he also checked the viability of the LED street lighting lamps which will replace the halogen bulbs currently in use.
“The bulbs in use right now are about 400 watts while these ones (the proposed LED street lights) are just 100 watts,” Mr. Ayade explained, stressing that the energy consumption will drop to less than one third of what is being used at the moment.
The lighting system is being provided by DNS, a digital lighting systems provider which is currently providing the sustainable lighting solution in place at the Ayade Industrial Park which houses the Cross River Rice Seeds and Seedlings Factory, the Eastern Instant noodles factory under construction and the chicken processing factory also under construction.
He said that the lights are brighter, more durable as they require a change of one compartment once in about eight years while the bulbs can last up to 20 years cutting down the maintenance cost on street lighting.
Meanwhile, Mr. Ayade had on Friday declared a state of emergency on the epileptic power situation in Calabar South local government area when he gave marching orders for the problem to be fixed in two weeks.
This is even as residents in the staff quarters of the Cross River University of Technology have been living without public power supply for eleven months with a resident complaining bitterly about the situation.
“I can’t believe we have been spending an average of NGN23,000 monthly on fuel. You will think that okay this is an academic community and so we should have uninterrupted power supply for research and other purposes but that is not the case,” said Ojong Bassey.
CrossRiverWatch also gathered that the test run of the 21 megawatts power plant will soon be carried out while another power plant in Obudu may be ready in a few days’ time.
In a related development, a transformer located in the premises of a fast food company, Fiesta Fries along Ndidem Usang-Iso road by Atekong in Calabar was destroyed by suspected power surge on Friday morning. Our reporters gathered that the transformer exploded at about 8:30 AM as a result of a high voltage pushed out by the distribution company.
An eye witness who simply gave his name as Nathaniel told CrossRiverWatch that some liquid had leaked out of the transformer when it exploded with the resulting fire put out by the fire service. He said a vehicle was damaged by the fire from the explosion.
“It all happened when the electricity company had restored light to the area. I was sitting here and the next thing I heard was an explosion, the transformer exploded and something was coming out of it, it looked like water and fuel,” Nathaniel said.
“I thank God that no life was lost, but it only damaged some part of a red Toyota Camry vehicle and I also want to thank God for the men of the state fire service who got here on time and we’re able to control the situation,” he added.
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