*Plans full metering of customers within four years
Oscarline Onwuemenyi
31 December 2015, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC, said it welcomed the new electricity tariff regime unveiled recently by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, even as it expressly endorsed the removal of fixed charges for all classes of customers by the Commission.
The company in a statement made available to journalists yesterday in Abuja, also reiterated its commitment to its mass metering project which commenced a few weeks ago with a pilot scheme in Niger State, stressing that the overall plan is to have all its customers metered within four to five years.
The company, which recently announced an investment of over N2 billion in network improvement, said it was working harder to raise the level of the investment so as to ensure better customer services across the coverage area.
According to the statement, signed by its spokesman, Ahmed Shekarau, AEDC said the ongoing pilot scheme would enable it to assess all challenges involved for it to evolve a more robust way of deploying the new meters across its coverage area of FCT, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states.
The company further noted that since its investment in the mass metering project has been captured in the new tariff regime approved by NERC, it will begin to roll out en mass across its entire franchise area after it has assessed the performance of the smart meters being installed in the pilot scheme currently ongoing in Niger State region.
“To facilitate the mass metering project, customer enumeration will commence early next year in order to obtain vital information that will be fed into each customer’s metering programme,” the statement noted.
AEDC also reassured electricity consumers under its franchise of its renewed commitment to rapid improvement in the quality of its services to them, in line with the performance agreements it endorsed during the bid process and pledged commitment to fulfilling other obligations placed on it by the new tariff order in order to increase the amount and quality of supply to its customers.
