Oscarline Onwuemenyi,
with agency reports
08 April 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Jos Electricity Distribution Company, JEDC, on Friday said that it had suspended installation of smart meters over alleged non-certification by Nigeria Electricity Management Service Agency, NEMSA.
Recall that the Managing Director of NEMSA, Mr. Peter Ewesor, had alleged that the installed meters were not certified by the agency after inspection on Thursday.
Mr. Ewesor said that every smart meter certified by NEMSA would carry the seal of the agency. “The smart meters currently being installed in Plateau are not certified by us and do not carry our seal,” he said.
The Managing Director of JEDC, Alhaji Gidado Modibo, however, said the allegation was untrue. He said that the meters were certified at the National Meter Test Station in Kaduna.
Mr. Modibo, who tendered a document, said that the meters were certified for installation by NEMSA in 2015.
He said that the company would suspend the installation of the meters based on NEMSA’s directive which had created doubts in the minds of customers.
He said that the meters would be taken to NEMSA for re-certification before installation would commence.
Modibo said that the company was working tirelessly to replace all wooden poles with concrete poles approved by NEMSA.
He added that the company was replacing prepaid meters with smart meters to reduce issues of energy theft.
The managing director alleged that most of the consumers were by-passing prepaid meters.
