Electricity is all around us, powering technology like our cell phones, computers, lights, soldering irons, air conditioners and industrial machines. It’s tough to escape it in our modern world. But this all important global commodity has continued to elude Nigerians and has affected economic performance of the nation.
When the power sector privatisation was concluded on September 30, 2013, expectations were high and many had compared their expectations with privatization of telecommunication sector. Only few, if any, would have imagined that less than five years post-privatisation, estimated billing otherwise called crazy-billing, would still a topic for discourse.
“Prepaid meter is our right not a privilege. Discos should stop acting as if they are doing us favour. Whatever they sell to us must be captured by use of prepaid meters. We want prepaid meters.” This was part of the complaints by electricity consumers during a stakeholders’ meeting between members of ad-hoc committee on power, representatives of some distribution companies and power consumers in Lagos recently.
At the meeting, one Mrs Ogunyemi from Ekiti State, stated that “we want prepaid meters. The disco covering Ekiti (Benin Disco) said they have 25 meters for the whole of Ekiti, does it means there are 25 housing units in Ekiti? There workers harass us, they are not customer friendly at all.”
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Most of complaints have been on lack of prepaid meters. A meter is the only device that can be used to measure accurately what a power consumer actually consumed in a particular period and is expected to settle the bills based on such estimate from the meter.
Estimated billing system is a system whereby the electricity distribution company bills its customers not on what they actually consumed but based on what the disco estimated such customers must have consumed due to lack of such meters. The practice was one of those being practiced by the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and it was tagged one of the most corrupt sector in the world at that time.
Recently, it was reported that the House of Representatives commenced moves to outlaw estimated billing of consumers by electricity distribution firms after the presentation of a bill sponsored by the House Leader, Femi Gbajabiamila, which sought to prohibit the issuance of such bills to consumers across the country.
The Chairman, House Committee on Privatisation and Commercialisation, Mr Shodimu Mutiu had also disclosed that the House of Representative is putting together a legislation that will criminalise electricity theft in the Country and provide for a stiffer penalty against the perpetrators of the act. The Act would mandate discos to provide prepaid meters within a specified period.
Besides, the Chairman, House of Representatives Ad Hoc Committee on Electricity Customers’ Complaints, Hon. Isreal Ajibola Famuyiwa, said the House had received a lot of petitions and complaints from Nigerians over crazy bills and poor services rendered by the electricity distribution companies.
He said public grievances against the Discos had reached a level that if the House of Representatives did not act fast, it would lead to a breakdown of law and order.
“The House in its wisdom, constituted this committee to interface with the consumers, the Discos and the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to find lasting solutions to all the problems facing the consumers. We had an interactive session with some stakeholders in Abuja. We have now decided to have proper interactions with the consumers and the Discos in all the six geopolitical zones. We are starting with Lagos in the South west and we are going to Enugu in South East, Port Harcourt in South South, Yola in North east, Kano in the North west and Nasarawa in North Central.
“At the end of this exercise, we are going to write a report and we are going to look at the laws guiding the sector. If we need to replace some laws, we will do that; if we need to amend some laws, we will amend them. We will do anything within the legislative framework to protect the interest of Nigerians,” he explained.
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Why the estimated billing system?
According to an industry source, “typically, a disco buys electricity in bulk from a generation company; let’s say N100 million for a month.
The disco sells the electricity to various households within its network and it is expected to recover the N100 million. Because most of the customers are unmetered, if the few that were metered accounted for N40 million of the revenue the remaining N60 million plus ‘premium’ will be distributed among those unmetered customers.”
He said the premium is discretional because “it is expected to account for energy theft, energy loss, and other factors to be determined by such disco.”
The system has been a source of defrauding innocent power consumers, hence, the reluctance by some discos to let go and perhaps provide prepaid meters for customers.
How NERC intends to abolish crazy billing system.
On the 20th of March, Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) introduced a new regulations aimed at eliminating estimated billing practices in the Nigerian power sector.
The policy known as Meter Asset Provider Regulation (MAP) 2018, is also expected to attract investment into the provision of metering services in the power sector.
MAP refers to a person/entity that is granted a permit by the commission to provide metering services which may include meter financing, procurement, supply, installation, maintenance and replacement. The commission explained that the main objectives of the regulations were to provide standard rules to encourage the development of independent and competitive meter services in Nigerian Electricity Statistics Industry (NESI).
It added that would also eliminate estimated billing practices in NESI, attract private investment to the provision of metering services in NESI and close the metering gap through accelerated meter roll out in NESI.
“All customers are eligible for the installation of an appropriate meter to accurately determine energy consumption and to provide for energy accounting. In line with the provisions of the metering code, a customer’s meter shall be repaired or replaced by the MAP within two working days.
“A customer meter shall be repaired or replaced at no additional cost within the amortization period of the asset unless the damage was as a result of the willful action of the customer. Where there is a dispute on the responsibility for the damage of a meter asset, the customer has a right to fair resolution in line with the metering code and other applicable Regulations and the MAP shall provide a meter pending the resolution of the dispute.
“Where it is established that the customer willfully damaged a meter, the MAP shall replace the meter based on an upfront payment by the customer or other mutually agreed terms of payment.
“Where the MAP is unable to provide a replacement meter within a billing period, an average of the last three months billing/vending shall be applied for the purpose of determining customer’s energy consumption. Where a customer relocates within the franchise area, the customer shall apply to the Distribution Licensee for the transfer of services including applicable credits for energy.” The regulations took effect from April 3, 2018.
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