Reports on activities in Nigeria’s power sector which the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) made available on on its official webpage have exposed the repeated failures of the regulatory agency in making sure that the Discos deliver efficient electricity services to their customers.
The reports which covered the period between January 2018 and June 2019, explained that service interruptions, poor voltage, load shedding, inadequate metering, prevalent practices of estimated billing, disconnections and delayed connection of consumers back to supply networks were predominant features of the services the Discos rendered to their customers.
According to the NERC report, 52.80 per cent of the complaints lodged by consumers in the second quarter of 2019, were on metering and billing and 47 per cent in the last quarter of 2018.
“The metering of end-use customers has continued to be a priority of the Commission. Of the total of 8,881,443 registered active electricity customers, only 3,811,729 (42.92 per cent) have been metered indicating that 57.08 per cent of the end-use customers are still on estimated billing,” said the NERC report.
It added that in comparison to the first quarter of 2019, the numbers of registered and metered customers increased by 40,642 and 17,834, representing 0.46 per cent and 0.47 per cent increases respectively.
The NERC stated that the increase in the number of registered customers could be attributed to an on-going enumeration exercise by the Discos through which illegal consumers of electricity would be captured on their billing platforms.
With regards to the increase in metered customers, it explained that it, “is mainly attributed to the roll-out of meters under the Meter Asser Provider (MAP) scheme,” adding that while some Discos have just finalised their procurement processes for MAPs, few of them have actually started metering under the scheme.
Stating its concerns, but without actually taking measures to remedy the continued practice, the NERC said that, “the additional 17,834 end- use customers’ meters installed during the second quarter of 2019 are insufficient to achieving the goal of closing the metering gap,” in the market within three years.
Furthermore, it explained that, “The 11 Discos nationwide received a total of 145,959 complaints during the second quarter (of 2019), indicating 1,603 complaints per day compared to 1,688 complaints received daily in the preceding quarter.
The Discos’ customer complaints centred on service interruption, poor voltage, load shedding, metering, estimated billing, disconnection, delayed connection, among others.”
“The number of complaints on metering and billing decreased significantly during the quarter under review but still dominates the customer complaints. Metering and billing accounted for 52.80 per cent (i.e., 77,063) of the total complaints received during the second quarter of 2019 as against 60.96 per cent (i.e., 92,626) recorded in the first quarter of 2019.
This implies that, on average, 847 customers complained about metering and billing per day in the second quarter of 2019. Another issue of serious concern is service interruption, accounting for 9.86 per cent (i.e. 14,396) of the total customer complaints received during the quarter under review,” the NERC explained.
For the last quarter of 2018, the NERC said that although the number of complaints on metering and billing decreased, it still dominated the customers’ complaints.
“Metering and billing accounted for 47 per cent (i.e., 63,791) of the total complaints received during the quarter under review as against 53 per cent (i.e., 68,749) recorded in the third quarter of 2018.
This implies that, on average, 693 customers complained about metering and billing per day in the fourth quarter of 2018. Another issue of serious concern is service interruption, accounting for 17.3 per cent (i.e. 23,603) of the total customer complaints received during the quarter under review,” it explained.
