NERC, SON sign MoU on electricity standards

ELECTRICITY Regulatory Commission (NERC) and Standard Organisation of Nigeria (SON) entered into a Memorandum of Understanding to ensure adherence to safety and reliability standard in the consumption, distribution, transmission and generation of electricity.

The Chief Executive Officers of the two Federal Government regulatory agencies signed on behalf of their respective organisations at a brief ceremony held at the headquarters of the NERC in Abuja.

Speaking at the signing ceremony, Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi said, “The law requires that we ensure electricity is safe, adequate and reliable. You cannot talk of reliability and safety without standard” and SON is reputed for setting standard.

“We have areas of collaboration beyond signing of this MOU which has been going on for some years now. This MOU is to build on that collaborative effort. “We have been experiencing increase in electricity supply lately and we only hope that the trend will continue. We do not want to see the downside of that increase, we therefore need to set safety and reliability standards,” Amadi said.

The Director General of SON Dr. Joseph Odumodu said that “Nigerians living in Nigeria should be safe as any other person living in any other part of the world. We are not there yet but we shall get there. We are beginning to see the benefits of standardisation in the electricity supply industry.”

Parties in the MOU are to “ensure compliance and enforcement of approved technical standards and government policies of standardisation of quality products; size and destroy substandard or defective goods” in the electricity market. Parties in the MOU also agreed “to preserve and promote the enforcement of already existing standards established by SON.” The two organisations are to set up a six-man committee with three members from each of the organisations to give effect to the objects of the MOU.