Ikeja Electric BFM 80

IKEJA ELECTRIC

EMPOWERWING NIGERIA

IKEJA ELECTRIC

WE LEARN HOW IKEJA ELECTRIC IS USING THE LATEST TECHNOLOGIES TO BRING POWER TO NIGERIA WHILE BALANCING THEIR OWN BOOKS.

EMPOWERING

NIGERIA PROJECT MANAGED BY: JAMIE WAITE Ikeja Electric is the biggest distribution company in Nigeria, taking 15% of what is generated from the grid. It has grown consistently over the last few years since it was privatised in 2013.

Today Ikeja Electric has over 700,000 customers and a mission to elicit a passion for service excellence and new thinking on how to empower lives and businesses across Ikeja Electric’s network. That network consists of six business units, 16 transmission substations, 160 33/11 kV transformers, 1,257 33/0.415 kV transformers and a massive 15,960 11/0.415 kV Transformers.

S

ince the handover of the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) to NEDC/ KEPCO Consortium under the Nigerian government’s privatisation scheme, Ikeja Electric’s primary objective has been to reduce the business’s losses, an objective they’re already making great headway with.

“I started working here five years ago and we’ve seen a really good loss reduction trajectory moving from 49% to 27% yesterday,” says Folake Soetan, CEO of Ikeja Electric.

“The reason it’s at 27% is because of the COVID-19 pandemic. We were already at 21% before the pandemic, so that’s something we’re really proud of. We are driving and pushing that transformation using technology. It’s a company I’m proud to be a part of.”

TECHNOLOGICAL LEVERAGE

Folake Soetan, CEO, Ikeja Electric.

Photo: © Dear Media

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Ikeja Electric isn’t just relying on a single technological innovation to drive the company’s growth and loss reduction, as Soetan explains, they are leveraging a range of tools.

“There are different things we’re looking to do,” she says.

“If you think of any country in the developed world, any growing company, data is critical to any business. What we try to do is leverage our data to try and improve our business processes to deliver our brand promise.

Technology plays a big role in our ability to develop and use the insights we’re getting from our data. I can’t overemphasise the role technology plays.”

It’s an approach that’s already yielded positive results, and Soetan talks us through a list of the company’s achievements.

“Some things we’ve done I’m very proud of,” Soetan says.

“Billing for example. For the longest time, a lot of the meters were still post-paying but we’re moving into a pre-paid methodology. We’re introducing electronic billing which we’re proud of. It improves efficiency and customer access to their data and gets them their bills on time. At the same time, it means you don’t need someone to physically deliver the bill.

Another thing I’m very happy about is a lot of people in Nigeria have a mobile phone

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and just recently we launched the WhatsApp Chatbot which allows people to have access to us. This is one of the many communication channels we have. We were the first to use the mobile application to obtain people’s meter readings and the first to deploy the AMI, or Advanced Meter Infrastructure, capturing valuable information in terms of our customer profile to lets us optimise distribution to our customers.”

A lot of these technological applications are about creating open, direct and accessible communication channels between Ikeja Electric and its customers.

“We use a very instrumental service reflective tariff that provides a bill which is transparent in its measurement of the services we provide to

Foga-Samuel Ltd is a company borne out of the vision and drive of our founder and CEO, Mr Chukwudum Aladum to play his part in aiding the Nigerian Power Industry to deliver constant and uninterrupted power supply to Nigerians. We build and supply high quality Electrical materials, we utilize the brains of the best engineers around in the construction and commissioning of overhead lines, installation of distribution panels and we always employ modern and innovative techniques in carrying out all our engagements while taking into account the impact we leave on the environment. Our word is our bond.

Head Office: 2 Dumdum Close, Okokomaiko, Lagos Branch Office: D188 Alaba Int’l Market, Ojo Lagos.

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our customers,” Soetan says.

“Customers can use channels like email or the ethernet on people’s phone as well as self-service channels we’ve introduced.”

However, the electricity distributor is also utilising applications that will allow for greater energy security while improving the overall electricity infrastructure.

“The very first challenge is that you need to be able to account for your energy,” Soetan says. “We need to know that electricity is delivered to the customer and where our losses are. That’s a major challenge. Once you can follow the energy from end-to-end you have a good chance of building a viable business. So that was a major challenge for us.”

To address this challenge Ikeja Electric put into place a unique strategy that would allow for exactly the kind of end-to-end monitoring they would need.

“The strategy we adopted was to approach it in reverse order.

We ensured we had deployed

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advanced metering infrastructure at the trading points where the energy comes from the grid to the customers,” Soetan tells us.

“We were tracking the feed from a transformer connected to a feeder. So instead of focusing on the consumer we focused on metering these points, feeders and transformers, and used advanced metering infrastructure to give us an idea of how we can account for our energy and how we can reduce losses. It’s much easier because your known what you’re getting end-to-end and have analytics to determine where your highest losses are. If you don’t know where they are, you can’t tackle them. That was a major achievement.”

A DESTINATION FOR INNOVATION

The technological investments have gone a long way to helping Ikeja Electric achieve its goals, but Soetan is the first to admit there’s more work to do.

“In line with our mid-term goals, we desire to improve the quality of electricity the customers are getting today. driving a topnotch customer experience with the required capabilities and competencies,” she says.

Beyond these immediate goals, however, Soetan has a longer-term vision for Ikeja Electric as the natural home for innovation in Nigeria.

“We have the capacity to replicate this across the network to sustain our business, growing a strong environment for skills within the organisation. I see us as a destination for young innovators thriving on technology. They will be creating landmarks and blueprints for others to follow as we have always done,” she tells us. “My wish is to oversee that organisation, delivering 24hour supply across the network and ultimately achieve a healthy balance sheet.”

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