Oscarline Onwuemenyi
29 September 2017, Sweetcrude, Abuja – The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) in the country have metered over three million electricity customers in the country as at August 2017.
NERC, which made the disclosure in its September Metering Initiative and Statistics Report for the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), also revealed that there was a metering gap of over 4 million customers by the DISCOs in the month under review.
The report, published on NERC’s website and obtained by our correspondent in Abuja, further indicated that total number of customers of the Discos as at August stood at over 7 million.
It further showed that the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC), with highest number of customers, records the highest metering gap of 864,760, while Eko Distribution Company has 173,643, the lowest in the period under review.
The report indicated that part of the mandate for the privatization of the Discos was the rolling out of metering to the consumers.
According to the report, 100 per cent metering of consumers will result into revenue protection and loss reduction. It said that provision of meters would provide safeguards from unfair billing practices for customers.
It added that the commission was working on modalities to eliminate all forms estimated billing.
The report noted that innovative options were being put in place by the commission to improve status of metering and customer concerns on estimated billing in the NESI.
It listed some of the innovative options already being considered to include the Meter Service Providers (MPS) Scheme, the modified Credited Advanced Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) and Franchising.
“MSPs are financial institutions, venture financiers or even OEMs (Meter Manufacturers). An MSP has the capacity to provide comprehensive meter services to customers,” the report stated.
