Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has developed a policy proposal would exempt unmetered electricity customers from paying bills when approved.
This was made known by the chairman NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi while briefing newsmen in Abuja.
He said the action was precipitated by the poor implementation of Credited Advanced Program for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) by Distribution Companies (Discos).
“The CAPMI Scheme has suffered poor implementation in spite of customers’ willingness to make advance payments for meters. In view of Discos’ negative attitude to metering, an option worth considering to incentivising metering is to place a limit on the ability of a Disco to arbitrarily estimate consumers who are not metered.”
Amadi said, based on the proposal, discos would be given four (4) months to meter all their customers under CAPMI, else cap action would be taken on their revenue generation; at the expiration of the four months, twelve (12) additional months would be given for them to meter all their customers, after which unmetered customers would be exempted from paying electricity bills.
He however said, the Commission would hold two separate consultations for electricity stakeholders before the full implementation.
On the complaints by local meter manufacturers of non-patronage, Amadi said, “NERC imposed a restriction on cerfication of meter importers. We demanded that every such importer must produce proof that the disco that gives it supply order cannot source such number of meters from local manufacturers. In other words, as long as there is available supply from local manufacturers to meet demands by discos NERC will not approve importation of meters.”
“Just this week, we received petition from some local meter manufacturers alleging that some discos have violated the local content obligation by installing imported meters when there are locally manufactured meters. We have started investigation of the allegation. Discos should note that the Commission will mete out severe sanctions to any operator who violates the regulations on metering and local content,” he said.
He noted that, high professional standards are demanded from discos in the electricity supply industry therefore, would not compare them to patronise local meter manufacturers with substandard products. However, he said, before any disco would be allowed to import meters, it must provide justifications that the local ones do not meet with the technical standards required.