Beyond the metering muddle

As the nation grapples with the rehabilitation, restructuring and revamping of the all-important power sector, sporadic encounters with vested interests opposed to smooth and systematic attainment of these crucial development objectives seem to be unavoidable. Even before we overcome the propaganda against the new tariff for electricity we are already contending with another diversionary ploy […]

As the nation grapples with the rehabilitation, restructuring and revamping of the all-important power sector, sporadic encounters with vested interests opposed to smooth and systematic attainment of these crucial development objectives seem to be unavoidable. Even before we overcome the propaganda against the new tariff for electricity we are already contending with another diversionary ploy to encumber the DISCOs with the metering muddle. Apart from the primary problem of obsolete installations producing inadequate power, the mundane task of metering consumers has proved to be another cog in the wheel. Long before the privatization was adopted as the only means of salvaging and reversing the decadent paralysis in the power sector, metering had been practically discarded and not even the establishment of the Electric  Meter Company (EMCON) in Zaria made a difference. Mass estimation was the (dis)order of the day as the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) and its customers both exploited the weaknesses of "guestimation" and "crazy bills" to their respective pecuniary advantages. Now it is the DISCOs that are being harassed and victimized for huge shortfalls in metering in the latest version of the campaign of calumny to derail the very foundation for sustainable involvement of international investors and power management consortia in rescuing the power sector.
Orchestrated complaints of unmetered electricity consumers and alleged breach of non-existent deadlines for metering all customers are being amplified and embellished and targeted at DISCOs in a conspiracy involving the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC),
Labour and civil rights groups. In a mischievous move to whip up public sentiments against DISCOs, propagandists claim that there is no zeal in bridging the metering gap because estimation enables extortion of customers. Against the background of the genesis and scale of the metering gap, it is preposterous and callous to suggest an 18 month timeframe could ever be enough to supply and install all the millions of meters required and that any DISCO worth its international reputation would sign up. There was no such Memorandum of Understanding  (MoU) or NERC policy directing the DISCOs to meter their customers in 18 months, neither was it contained in the Agreement signed with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE).
According to news reports, at takeover point in November 2013, the new investors in AEDC for instance, discovered that less than 50% of their customers had meters! Additional indication of the enormity of the number of meters as well as the magnitude of expenditure required for this exercise can also be gleaned from AEDC’s published commitment to install 500,000 meters at the rate of 100,000 per annum for five years. This will be after completing the pilot scheme of free installation of 6,250 meters, 5,000 of which are being installed free of charge in Tunga area of Minna in Niger State, and the remaining 1,250 are to be installed in Utako Market in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT). Implementation of the mass metering project is expected to cost $200 million. Reports also say that AEDC has already installed over 40,000 meters through the
Credited Advance Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) Scheme from November 2013 when it took over, under an NERC scheme to help bridge the wide metering gap as the Regulator was fully aware of the huge gap inherited. An electronic vending system which allows customers to recharge their meters via the internet, in addition to other multiple channels of buying units is also said to be now operational in the AEDC’s franchise area of FCT, Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger States. In any case, common sense dictates that metering of customers by DISCOs must be linked to a Cost-Reflective Tariff, which only came into effect from February 1, 2016.
While it is very clear that the DISCOs are not on an extortionist expedition in Nigeria considering all these factors, we must be honest enough to admit that the fishy circumstances under which the estimation scam was introduced in the NEPA days remain prevalent among customers, many of whom are grossly under-billed "by arrangement" even as many others enjoy free electricity by a culture of attacks and intimidation of officials. It is most unfortunate that these types of corruption and economic sabotage are being condoned under the guise of "checking" the DISCOs.
The sooner we actualize the current anti-corruption and anti-economic sabotage fervour in our deeds, especially in the power sector, the better for us all. Please let us allow the time-tested and internationally accepted privatization and reform of the power sector to succeed so that we can enjoy stable, adequate and affordable electricity supply for domestic and development purposes as in the rest of the modern world.

Idongesit wrote this piece from Mpape, Abuja.