..Frowns at inability of Discos to meter customers 10 days after payment
Incidence of frequent power outage came to the front burner Monday as Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said that it is working on ways to monitor the quality of power supplied to customers.
Besides,the commission observed that it is wrong not to meter any customer that has paid for prepaid Meter within ten days.
The NERC’s Commissioner, Finance and Management Services, Mr Nathan Shatti, made the disclosure at the commission’s Virtual Town Hall Meeting on Monday night.
The meeting was held with representatives of Electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs), Meter Asset Providers and other stakeholders in the power sector.
Shatti said that the commission was also working on ways to check the number of interruptions on power supply and much more, adding that this might take a while but it would be done.
He reiterated that a customer must be metered within 10 days of payment for a meter.
According to him, failure of the DISCOs to meter a customer after 10 days of payment negates regulation.
“However, customers must ask the DISCOs for availability of meters before making payment,” he said.
Shatti said that NERC was working seriously to ensure that the issue of estimated billing was over.
“Hence the commission is working hard to ensure all customers are metered.
“We want to get out of estimated billing that is why we are talking so much about meters.
“We are working with other stakeholders to ensure mass metering as this is very important to everyone,” he said.
Customers, at the meeting, commended NERC for the initiative as they said it was an opportunity to express themselves and called for the continuity of such forums.
A customer, Mr. Kassim Olatoyinbo from Lagos State, revealed that he was impressed about the meeting, adding that his impression about NERC had changed.
”I recommend that this online meeting is sustained,” he said.
However, he complained that he had paid for a meter since April and nothing had been done about it, adding that DISCOS were not interested in metering as they preferred estimated billing.
For his part, Mr. Oluwaseun Adeyanju from Ikorodu, Lagos State thanked NERC for the meeting and asked it to do more in regulating the DISCOs.
