There have been arguments between Delta State government and Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) over continued use of estimated electricity bills.
This comes as investigation by The Guardian indicates that consumers in the state will continue to grapple with estimated bills because BEDC will not stop it soon.
The Guardian gathered that many electricity consumers in Delta State applied for prepaid meters to avoid estimated billings, but they were told by BEDC that the “Federal Government, for now, has put on hold allocation of pre-paid meters to consumers.”
The development has resulted in clashes between BEDC field workers and their customers at the urban and rural areas across the state at the point of distributing bills. Customers engaged BEDC officials in fight.
Disturbed by this development, Delta State Commissioner for Energy, Mr. Jonathan Ukodhiko, an engineer, told journalists in Asaba that many communities were in darkness because they were unable to pay high bills unilaterally allocated to them by BEDC.
While deploring the continued rip-off of communities through estimated billings, he said: “You can’t continue to give people estimated billing, provide bulk metering system for the communities so that they can pay for what they consume.
“I found out that most of the rural areas are in a big mess, even places with grids have no light. Why is there no light? BEDC said it was because most of the people are not paying.
“What do you mean by these people are not paying? You cannot continue giving people estimated bills and expect them to pay.”
But the BEDC Corporate Communications Officer in Asaba, Delta State, Mrs. Esther Okwuodima Okolie, while justifying BEDC’s estimated billings, said: “The problems is not in us but the customers who are desperate to get electricity, and this desperation brought about the methodology of estimated billings.”
Okolie told The Guardian in Asaba, yesterday, that for peace to reign, customers should engage their field workers in charge of their location for load assessment if they are not satisfied with the estimated bill received or “go to NERC website, our regulating agency, to assess it.”
On the metering of rural areas, BEDC spokesperson said: “For now, we are targeting heavy users within the metropolis, the communities they are talking about are mostly farmers who use light at night and prefer their transformer metered for easy assessment among themselves.
“We never have 100 per cent accurate distribution of light, that is the essence of having the load assessment to serve as a guard pending the availability of meters,” she added.
