Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), says its customers in communities using bulk billing systems cannot be metered unless the communities cancel the arrangement.
EEDC’s Head of Communications, Emeka Ezeh, disclosed this on Friday in Aba, in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN).
Ezeh said that such communities would first take steps collectively to de-bulk their billing system before they can be metered.
“People under bulk billing systems which is a community arrangement, will have to de-bulk the transformer, so that the customers under that transformer can be metered.
“That will help to create accounts for them individually and no individual can isolate his building in such a community from that arrangement until the transformer is de-bulked.
“After de-bulking, the EEDC will now carry out the enumeration of the customers there and create individual accounts for them.
“It is the account which is created for individual customers in the area that the customers will use to apply for meter.
“If you are on a bulk billing arrangement, you cannot opt out and be given a meter unless the arrangement is dissolved by the community,” Ezeh said.
He said that EEDC cannot dissolve bulk billing arrangements by itself because it was not imposed on such communities by the company, hence they have to dissolve it themselves.
Ezeh also said that customers who bought their meters through the Meter Asset Providers (MAP) programme, cannot move the meters outside the network they bought them from.
He said the company had begun creating awareness on the availability of pre-paid meters under the MAP programme for customers to initiate moves to get metered.
“The metering programme is available for the customers to take advantage of.
“If the customers do not indicate interest and initiate the process, there is nothing anybody can do about it.
“So you need to go, pick the form, fill it and return it after completion for the team to carry out a survey of your location.
“If everything is okay, you will now be given a demand note with which you can go and pay for the meter.
“It is after the payment that the contract will commence and 10 days after that, the meter will be deployed.
“So it is important that we understand how this works,” he said.
