From James Ojo, Abuja.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has issued a deadline to distribution companies (DISCOs) to issue prepaid meters to all their electricity consumers on or before February 28, 2017.
The regulatory body warned that it would sanction any company that failed to meter electricity consumers on their networks after that day. NERC, in a statement on its website, said that punishment of defaulting DISCOs would begin on March 1, 2017.
On several occasions, NERC has imposed fines on DISCOs and the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) for infractions on some of the agreements to improve electricity supply in the country.
The commission stated that the envisaged sanctions were sequel to the initial directives by NERC and the moratorium period given to DISCOs to meter consumers.
The company noted that this was in line with its mandate of protecting the rights of customers.
In June 2016, after consultation with the operators, NERC said that it directed DISCOs to conclude metering of all customers before November 30, 2016, and also granted three months moratorium, which would expire on February 28, 2017, to enable the DISCOs effectively execute their meter deployment plan for customers.
The commission has urged electricity users yet to be metered by February 28, 2017, to nake a report through any of its forum offices in all the states of the federation.
NERC urged customers that had advanced money to the DISCOs through the now wound down Credited Advance Payment for Metering Initiatives (CAPMI) to make use of the complaint redress mechanism.
“The Commission is by this notice advising electricity customers not to take laws into their hands by attacking staff of electricity distribution companies.
“They may wish to be guided not to resort to legal proceedings as the first option in seeking redress, but to explore the commission’s redress mechanism to save litigation cost and time,” the commission admonished electricity consumers.
NNPC: Refineries resume kerosene, diesel production
From Uche Usim, Abuja
After months of inactivity, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) yesterday said its three refineries in Kaduna, Port Harcourt and Warri have resumed production of automotive gas oil (AGO) and dual purpose kerosene (DPK), otherwise known as diesel and kerosene, respectively.
The resumption of refining of AGO and DPK, according to the national oil company, is expected to balance the disequilibrium in demand and supply of the white products being experienced in recent times in parts of the country.
Speaking on the production level of the Warri refinery, managing director of the Warri Refining and Petrochemical Company, Engr. Solomon Ladenegan, said the plant had been doing well since the crude distillation unit was revved up on Saturday, January 7, 2017.
The refinery, he said, now refines two million litres of kerosene and three million litres of diesel daily.
“This morning, we have pumped the products to PPMC and they have started loading. They are going to load up to one million litres of DPK and AGO. The products are there in the tank and we are doing everything to get them to the market,” Ladenegan told newsmen.
On his part, the managing director of the Port Harcourt Refining Company, Dr. Bafred Enjugu, said the Port Harcourt refinery was producing three million litres of AGO daily, in addition to the DPK being churned out by the plant daily.
Enjugu enthused that his staffers were thrilled to have rehabilitated the Port Harcourt Refinery, where production of AGO was being carried out by themselves without foreign expertise deployment.
