“Electricity consumers do not want to pay on the basis of estimated bills, rather they want to pay for what they consume and should be provided meters in order to achieve this”, Mr Adebayo Adelabu told power distribution companies on Tuesday.
He passed this stern message through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission during a meeting with investors/owners of Discos in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry chain in Lagos State.
The lack of adequate meters has remained an issue in the power sector, as power distributors are still finding it tough to meter consumers in their various franchise areas, hence, have resorted to over-billing end users by issuing estimated bills.
An investigation has shown that power distribution companies overbilled about 7.1 million unmetered electricity consumers between January and September 2023.
This is in spite of Regulatory Interventions for Non-Compliance with the Order on Capping of Estimated Billing to Unmetered Customers, issued to the 11 Discos by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, an agency of the Federal Government.
Further to this it was established that the power distributors raked over N105bn as a result of over-billing, whereas, the distribution firms were bound to provide meters to ameliorate the financial crisis in the sector and among consumers.
The NERC Chairman, Sanusi Garba, while explaining the key role of metering in addressing some of the challenges in the NESI, was quoted as saying, “Metering is an issue. Without metering, the issue of liquidity will not be resolved.
“Customers want to pay for what they consume. It is the single most prevalent complaint of consumers. We cannot overlook the value of metering in the value chain, and we will continue to focus on how to close the gap because customers do not want to pay on the basis of estimated bills.”
Also speaking at the meeting, the Team Lead (Power), Office of the Special Adviser on Energy to the President, Eriye Onagoruwa, decried the huge metering gap in the power sector.
“There is a huge metering gap that needs to be bridged. The Presidential Metering Initiative is looking at bulk procurement of smart meters, developing homegrown systems of MDMS, reduction of ATC&C losses to globally accepted standards, and stakeholder engagement to identify challenges facing the sector, while carrying metering manufacturers along without compromising on cost, quality and delivery,” she stated.
The Commissioner, Finance and Management Services, NERC, Nathan Rogers, however explained what customers should know with respect to the payment for meters.
He said, “Customers should not pay for meters when you (Discos) don’t have meters in stock. If you collect customers’ money, then you have to install meters for them at no additional cost regardless of when you install it,” adding that Discos cannot increase the meter price for customers that have already paid.
The Minister, while seeking for more investments in gas sector says he expects “ Discos to meter paid customers within 10 days. “You need to communicate with them (customers) and give them an installation date. But nstead, the customer pays, hears nothing and continues to wait in perpetuity.”
The failure of Discos to provide meters had made the regulator put a cap on the amount that each power distributor should bill any particular customer in any given location.
But the Discos have been flauting this order by the regulator, leading to the recent sanction against the power firms by NERC.
It was reported on Saturday that the power sector regulator declared that it would deduct N10,505,286,072 from the annual allowed revenues of the 11 power distribution companies during the next tariff review as part of sanctions over their non-compliance with the capping of estimated bills for unmetered customers.
NERC stressed that the billing of unmetered customers by the power firms in their various franchise areas for 2023 revealed non-compliance with the monthly energy caps issued by the commission.