The surreptitious act, whereby some Discos lure customers’ especially streets and communities into replacing or contributing money for the upgrade of their failed facilities has been outlawed by the Federal Government.
Otherwise, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has condemned the corrupt practice of some electricity distribution companies forcing customers to invest in the replacement of distribution infrastructure including transformers, poles and cables as a condition for restoration of electricity supply.
Though the commission had earlier issued a ‘Regulation for Investment in Electricity Networks’ whereby customers desirous of intervening in the restoration of power supply could invest in the provision of materials and installation, the Commission made it clear that in such scenarios, customers must not be intimidated into spending money for the Discos in order to get their services.
The Commission made it clear that “In this regard, customers are hereby requested to report any electricity distribution company that has engaged in the practice of forcing customers to supply materials and/or installation as a precondition for providing or restoring electricity supply.”
NERC also made it clear that the recent act by the Enugu Disco, where it was involved in the removal of meters from customer premises purportedly on the regulator’s directive that all meters that had been in use for more than 10 years should be phased out was wrong in its entirety.
“The commission has issued no such directive to the licensees and no metered customer should be transferred to ‘estimated billing’ on the premise that meters in use for more than 10 years are dysfunctional,” the NERC stated.
“All licensees must henceforth adhere to the PART III, SECTION 3.5.2 of the Metering Code which states that ‘if a metering system fault occurs, the distributor shall provide urgent metering services to repair or replace the metering system as soon as it is practicable and in any event within two working days of the distributor discovering that the fault exists’”.
