• Friday, March 29, 2024
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After raising electricity tariffs, is NERC monitoring service delivery?

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It is now four months since the electricity sector regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), nearly doubled electricity tariffs but questions remain regarding how effectively it is monitoring service delivery.

In November 2020, the regulator began implementing the service-based tariff system where customers are supposed to pay for power based on the number of hours of supply they get daily.

The highest Band A customers should get up to 20 hours of supply daily while those in Band B will get about 16 hours of supply daily. Those in Band C will get about 12 hours of supply daily, those in Band D will enjoy up to eight hours of supply, while Band E customers did not get a tariff increase as they are meant to be supplied about four hours of electricity daily. However, there are minor variations within each DisCo.

Findings show that many customers are not getting the full number of contracted hours daily irrespective of the tariff band they are placed in.

Worse still, customers who are on estimated billing because of the government’s failing metering programme are groaning under the yoke of outrageous bills by DisCos across Nigeria. For these customers, forcing them to pay the reviewed tariffs based on the estimation of their neighbour’s consumption is fraught with errors.

Some customers receive power on a rotational basis – one day on, two days off. Some get less than four hours even when they are on service bands that promised 12 hours supply or higher, while some go for days without supply.

“We average 6-8 hrs of light/day and we are billed as customers on tariff class C. We pay between 37k to 46k/month for light we don’t get to use,” said Adewole Olusegun, a customer under Ikeja Electric.

Read Also: NERC, listen to electricity customers’ complaints

But under the revised rate, non-MD customers in Band C where this customer belongs should get a minimum of 12 hours daily and should be charged N37.95/Kwh.

“I stay at Iyanasachi, Iba Local Government. For the past two weeks now, Eko Electric only gives us light at night, from 12 am to 5 am, but at the end of the month, they will send huge bills in thousands,” another customer reported to NERC on Twitter.

Yet another customer cried out “to whom it may concern”.

“We have been experiencing erratic power supply in Festac for weeks now without any respite from Eko Electric, and I have called to lodge a complaint to no avail,” the customer said.

The trouble with the service-based tariff is that NERC established an equitable system of determining how electricity supply should be paid, but hasn’t been proactive in monitoring for compliance.

“We are ensuring that all feeder meters are installed (currently 90 percent) and are remotely reading the feeder meters to establish hours of supply,” said Abdulkadir Shettima, NERC’s general manager, during a webinar organised by the Abuja Chamber of Commerce and Industry, on Thursday.

Shettima further said that the NERC is also at an advanced stage of developing an APP to aid customers in equally reporting outage durations.

The customers’ disaffection shows that perhaps it would have been wiser to set up this system before forcing down another tariff increase on them.

Since many customers are frustrated with the service and are taking it out on DisCo workers who are out to do their routine jobs.

This year alone, irate customers have attacked nearly half a dozen staff of Ikeja Electric who were either trying to collect revenue from customers or enforce disconnection notices.

The latest was an attack on two employees of Ikeja Electric who were beaten up at Anthony and Gbagada areas of Lagos over the last two weeks. Some of those responsible have been charged to court.

“While we understand that sentiments regarding utility services can be quite emotive, we maintain that wanton attacks on our staff are completely irrational, irresponsible, and unproductive especially where Ikeja Electric has provided multiple channels through which our customers can lodge formal complaints with respect to our services,” the company said in a release.

However, the challenge is that customers do not believe these channels are responsive.

“While I condemn jungle justice in all ramifications but Ikeja Electric needs to step up by providing service with a human face, I have complained to Ikeja Electric about (a problem with) my first bill since October 2020 but 6 months down the line no resolution,” Wale Musa complained to Ikeja Electric on Twitter.

Ikeja Electric and other DisCos are pulling service away from communities that attacked their staff which is further limiting how much revenue they should be making. The shortfall is further distributed to unmetered customers in locations paying, which in turn increases outrage among customers.

At the root of customers’ disaffection with the DisCos is estimated billing commonly called crazy billing, a practice where unmetered customers are billed through DisCos’ discretion.

Customers at the Abuja Chamber of Commerce webinar called for removing barriers to the metering business in Nigeria, which is merely an electronic device that has become too politicised with the Presidency, the Central Bank along with NERC all contributing to drafting policies on meter rollout – which has so far made little difference.