CWG Plc prepaid meters coming to disrupt metering sub-sector in Nigeria—Agada
The Chief Executive Officer of CWG Plc., Mr. James Agada, has given fresh details on the innovative advantages coming with its prepaid meters, saying the device is designed and built to resolve all teething issues hobbling the metering industry and customer experience in electricity usage in Nigeria.
Business Hilights recalls that CWG was among the 85 successful Meter Access Providers (MAPs) licensed after passing the test of manufacturing prepaid meters for Nigerian use under a new arrangement by the National Electricity Regulatory Agency (NERC).
Speaking recently during a media interactive session in his office in Lekki, Agada made it clear that “We building meters that can create additional revenue streams for the Disco and some of our meters come with the capability to provide Wifi hotspot and once you have wifi in an area and you can stream video, you can do a lot of other services, you can even run adverts which can generate revenue for the Discos.
“We are already a meter asset provider and we have a few piled up projects going on right now hopefully we will be able to demonstrate it to the larger ecosystem and see this is a better approach.
Explaining more on the added value coming with CWG meters, Agada noted that “The meter was designed by CWG, including the software. The only thing we don’t do is the physical hardware. We have people bringing it for us from China.
“Our Smart Utility meters have the capacity to significantly reduce the challenges witnessed in the power sector. Some of the challenges include losses due to poor metering, theft through meter tampering and jamming or illegal connections and non-existence of energy audit.
While revealing that the meter would be offered to electricity distribution companies in order to efficiently manage and monitor energy flow to the end users, Agada averred “The meters will be used by using a Pole Top Unit (PTU) mounted on each distribution poles. This measures current flow of all distribution lines from the distribution transformer to the customer. We develop, implement, install, manage and provide technical support on the solution.
“The meter comes in a single face for households and double faces. It will also allow remote disconnection on non-payment consumer and is a theft prevention solution, with utility analytics, energy audit, demand side management, real time billing efficiency and network asset management.
On the affordability of CWG meters, the chief executive said “In terms of being affordable, we actually can tell anybody that we can give the meters cheaper than anybody is going to give you”.
