Tension may be building up among electricity consumers and between them and electricity Distribution Companies, DisCos as the later is bent on continuing with their exploitative tendencies of estimated billings.
This is even as the DisCos seem not to be ready to frontally tackle the 52 percent metering gap of about 10 million consumers that are supposed to be metered.
Our investigations revealed that most of the firms are cash trapped due to a lack of aggressive revenue generation and obsolete infrastructure due to a lack of major investments by the investors.
While the consumers are ready to enforce what they regard as ‘fundamental rights’ to affordable and regular light, the firms are believed to be stuck to their old ways of doing things, albeit at the expense of consumers.
The development may be setting up the stage for breaking the fragile peace in the country occasioned by dwindling wallets and rising inflation.
Specifically, the Management of Kaduna Electric has debunked what it called insinuations from a section of its customers that a flat rate of N1,800 has been fixed by NERC as a monthly payment for electricity used by Residential and Commercial customers.
The company in a statement issued by its Head of Corporate Communication, Abdulazeez Abdullah, claimed the cap order on estimated billing by NERC did not imply that all Residential and Commercial customers shall pay a uniform rate, rather, the order stipulated different rates for different locations.
Kaduna DISCO argued that the NERC’s capping was essentially to accelerate the metering of customers in the Residential and Commercial categories.
The company stated that the capping as directed by NERC varies from one location to another within the company’s four franchise states of Kaduna, Sokoto, Zamfara and Kebbi.
It, however, urged customers who have not been metered yet to immediately apply for a meter which are available under the Meter Asset Provider scheme.
Similar circumstances abound in the other DisCos which are either finding it difficult to explain the ‘scarcity’ of the prepaid meters or poor services or lack of it for which they are being billed every month.
Benin DisCos recently had it tough with some consumers, who under the union attempted to disrupt and vandalize services.
Ikeja DisCos is currently facing alleged scarcity of meters, particularly, three-phase as some of the customers that applied for three-phase last year were told to come and pay for one phase, a development that has started the process with consumers at the receiving ends paying the rising estimated billing monthly.
NERC had early this week issued an order barring the 11 DisCos from charging residential customers above an average of N1,800 monthly until they are metered.
NERC, in an Order 197 signed by its Chairman, Prof. James Momoh and the Commissioner, Legal, Licencing and Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye, NERC said the new order repeals the 2012 estimated billing regulation effective since last Thursday, February 20.