…Says estimated billing a rip off  

From Dennis Mernyi, Abuja

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has warned DISCOS to supply meters to all customers or risk sanction.

NERC acting Chairman of NERC, Dr. Anthony Akah disclosed that about 2.9million households are yet to be metered by the 11 electricity Distribution companies (Discos).

An assessment report by NERC,  cited by Akah said, “since the Discos took over operations of the network in 2013, there has not been significant improvement in terms of metering”.

He said, “It is criminal for any Disco that has not metered consumers under CAPMI since November 2013.

“Do it now before we conclude our investigations,” he warned the operators.

He further said, there are plans to wind up the CAPMI as he urged the Discos to key into it as it was neglected in the past.

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He presented the report yesterday in Abuja at a meeting with the Discos to evaluate their performance on the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Initiative (CAPMI).

Statistics showed that of the 403,255 meters procured since 2013, customers financed the installation of 251,531 meters which is about 100,000 higher than what the Discos have procured as at March 2016.

At takeover in November 2013, the Discos had a pact with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) and NERC on bridging the three million metering gap but have failed to reach even 200,000 after two years.

Data submitted by the 11 Discos to NERC indicates that there are 6.159 million customers’ accounts as at December 2015 with 3.206 milion metered. The other 2.953million customers have remained un-metered thereby raising the concerns on the estimated billing system.

While Northern Discos including Abuja, Jos, Kaduna, Kano and Yola claimed to have 1.973million customer base; Port Harcourt, Benin and Enugu Discos have 1,863,708 customers. In the west, Eko, Ikeja and Ibadan Discos have 2,322,376 customer accounts.

Other concerns, the NERC boss raised include wrong migration of customers to higher classes of tariff, and complaints of over 200 per cent rise in the estimated bills of some customers to the Commission.

Responding, Jos Disco contested its metering status saying it has done more than the figure reported. Benin Disco said it uses cluster billing to charge people in a place for the energy delivered to the area whether household entities consume that or not.

NERC also chided Ikeja and Kano Discos’s report indicating that none of its 1.057million customers was willing to pay for meters. However, Kano Disco said despite its awareness efforts, the customers are not willing to embrace CAPMI.