Kunle Kalejaye
19 November 2016, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has decried the worrisome safety records of accidents in the Enugu Electricity Distribution Network, EEDC, which has recorded 14 deaths cases and 5 injuries in 2016 alone.
NERC’s Acting Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Dr. Anthony Akah, also frowned at EEDC’s violation of its performance agreements, noting its flagrant violation/ disregard of Commission’s directives on mass disconnection of communities as well as high incidences of high estimated billing resulting from inadequate electricity metering of its customers.
Amongst these violations was EEDC’s failure to submit inventory data for 2016 to the Commission; hence it was slammed with a fine to the tune of 13 million Naira this year.
Commenting further on other service failures by the utility company, Akah said, ‘’ It is on record that within the period of January to September 2016, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company recorded over 2,466 unresolved electricity complaints from electricity customers who were dissatisfied with services rendered’’.
However, the Commission in ensuring electricity customers within EEDC’s network would have a fast track resolution of their electricity complaints as NERC prepares to open its Owerri Electricity Customer Complaints Forum Office.
This makes it the 17th Forum office to be opened by NERC. Forum Offices are the second stage in the Commission’s redress making procedures. It handles unresolved complaints from the customers care unit of electricity distribution companies.
Meanwhile, electricity customers within the EEDC distribution network have expressed their concern regarding the time frame taken by the company to resolve electricity issue, declaring it as dissatisfactory, and urged the Commission to ensure the Discos do the right thing always and to ensure that the distribution company responds urgently to customers’ complaints.
The customers also reacted to an announcement by the EEDC’s on its planned meter roll-out that would see to the injection of about 100,000 meters into its network on an annual basis for the next 5 years, declaring that they were going to monitor the company in this regard to ensure that they keep their promise to consumers.