Mandate DisCos to meter all unmetered Band A customers within 60 days – Blueprint Newspapers Limited

The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has called on the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to mandate DisCos to meter all unmetered Band A customers within 60 days, thus ensuring accurate billing and protecting consumers from arbitrary estimations. 

The FCCPC said this is to address concerns and promote consumer welfare under the current service reflective tariff regime.

The Ag. Executive Vice Chairman/Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Adamu Abdullahi in a press release said DisCos’ repeated failure to meet the minimum power supply hours for respective tariff bands and their failure over time to compensate consumers for service downtime have made consumer grievances worse.

He urged NERC to vigorously enforce the cap on estimated bills and ensure compliance with the required daily supply for respective tariff bands (A to E), thereby promoting fairness in billing practices.

He said the FCCPC is pleased with NERC’s recent Order to DisCos to automatically downgrade any Band A feeder that does not enjoy the minimum requirement of 20 hours per day power supply for seven consecutive days. 

He said while the Commission will closely monitor the implementation of this directive by all parties, in line with extant laws and an existing Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with NERC, we urge NERC to diligently enforce the proposed measures and collaborate with stakeholders to address consumer concerns, in order to foster a sustainable and consumer-friendly electricity market.

“It is the Commission’s view that unless a consumer on Band B, C, D, or E is metered, the DisCo should not be allowed to migrate such a consumer to a higher tariff band to avoid any form of exploitation. This will also serve as an incentive for DisCos to meter consumers.