• DisCos to take over market as prices become unaffordable
The All Electricity Consumer Protection Forum has called on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to enforce refunds for consumers who have purchased electricity meters from distribution companies (DisCos) under the meter asset provider scheme.
The forum further demanded stricter implementation of regulations on market pricing, emphasizing that with the deregulation of the meter market, the price issued by the vendors cannot be paid by them in advance any further and urged the discos to take over. This demand comes amid growing concerns over the high costs and unfair practices in the electricity metering market.
The forum made this known in a letter signed by them and sent to NERC, stating that the commission should give orders to DisCos on implementation without delay on refunds of consumers who bought their meters under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme.
National Coordinator of the Forum, Adeola Samuel-Ilori, said that with regulations stipulating that the cost should be covered by DisCos, NERC should give an order that will give effect to section 114(1) Electricity Act, 2023 and section 13(2) Consumers protection regulations for the Discos to take up responsibility of the meter provisions to customers without further burdens on consumers.
“The provision of the law in the repealed Electric Power Sector Reforms Act, 2005 was not unambiguous in the stand on who owns meter and other materials used in the business of power supply, which is the Discos, but the provision before it was repealed, did not give discos the leverage to perpetually held it trust without paying back.
“This spirit and letters of capping methodology introduced by NERC in February 2020, was also meant to streamline the gap of metering, which was stated, and to facilitate the Discos to metered consumers with distinct proviso in paragraph 16, that any consumer who failed to be metered must be disconnected until he or she is ready to be metered. “
“This is abysmal because the DisCos did not implement capping orders or meters according to MAP, as it has always been a case of either no meter available or customers paid and were never metered or refunded, thereby resulting in double jeopardy for consumers,” he said.
He added that looking at the new Electricity Act and the consumers’ protection regulations to ascertain whose duty and responsibilities it is to provide meters, Section 114(1) of the Act puts the responsibilities on both the commission and the DisCos.
“Failure to do the above, we will be left with no other choice than to approach the courts to compel NERC to carry out the orders and demands according to the Act that guides their functions. We are partners in progress and want the industry to work and serve us better as well as get value for our money,” he said.
