Amoda: Eko Disco Loses Revenue through Estimated Billing

The Chief Executive Officer of Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Mr. Oladele Amoda recently unveiled the company’s robust metering programme, where he flagged off the installation of the first batch of 12,000 smart prepaid meters. He also told journal

Under the power privatisation programme, you signed an agreement with the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE) to provide meters to all customers in your network within five years, Two years have elapsed, how far have you gone with your metering scheme Ninety thousand, within second quarter of this year and then, at the end of the year, we will make it up to 150,000. So, we have done 46,000 between when we took over the company on November 1, 2013 and now. When you look at that, you can see that we are moving up. By the end of this year, we will have installed 200,000 meters. What we met on ground when we took over was less than 200,000 customers that had either prepaid meters or the analogue meters but most of the meters are old. So, their integrity is in doubt. We are going to replace all those meters that we met on ground with smart prepaid meters. Of course, we have been installing meters all the over the places but we have just received a large consignment of smart prepaid meters recently. That is why you saw them in the store. We have demonstrated to you how smart metering arrangement works and we will continue to deploy them. We patronise indigenous manufacturers. As you can see, the representative of Mojec International, which is a local manufacturer of meter is here. We partner them. We have also patronised other indigenous manufacturers, as well, but Mojec is our major supplier now. We have contracted Maximum Demand (MD) meters to a local representative of a manufacturing company from France - Aiton of France. We need Maximum Demand Meters in large quantity and we do not want to border the indigenous manufacturers. We want them to concentrate on three-phase and Single-phase meters for R2 and R3 customers. So, that is what we are doing.

Apart from the single-phase and three-phase meters, how many maximum demand meters do you have? We ordered for 7,500 maximum demand meters. Out of this figure, we have taken delivery of 3,000 as at today and we are expecting the remaining ones to be delivered shortly. Before the end of this year, we will have taken delivery of all the maximum demand meters. We plan to provide meters to all our maximum demand customers this year. We are going to try and ensure that all of them have meters this year, while at the same time, provide meters to all other categories of customers. We are going to ensure that all our customers have meters. We want them to be happy. We don’t want to give customers estimated bills because estimated billing does not even pay us. We have done the market analysis, comparing the payment pattern of those on estimated billing and those on functional meters. We found out that those on functional meters pay more than those on estimated billings because in most cases, we even underestimate but customers do not know that.

Will this prepaid smart metering address the issue of energy theft and bypassing of meters by customers? Of course, yes. Right now, the old prepaid meters are prone to energy theft and bypass. That is why we are going into this smart metering. It is a new technology and with it, you need less labour. We can sit in our office and see what is going on in the field. That is why we have decided to use smart metering because it will reduce energy theft. When we reduce energy theft, the money we gain from there can be used for reinforcement of our network, rehabilitation and all that.

How much have you invested so far in the installation of meters for your customers?

For the maximum demand meters, we have invested $15 million, which we have paid. That is the total so far and that is where we started from and it is about N3 billion. Then for the other meters, at the end of the end of the three-year programme or four years, we are going to spend about N52 billion. This amount is not something somebody can have access to easily. That is why we are doing it gradually in phases. All our customers should be rest assured that meter will be installed for everyone of them. We have a robust metering plan that will enable us to provide meters for everybody. But we will work according to the agreement we signed with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) during the privatisation. The agreement we signed stipulates that we should provide meters to all our customers within five years of operation. So, we are looking at that but we really want to accelerate and get that done even before the five-year period in the agreement.

Other distribution companies have complained that they do not patronise local manufacturers of meters because locally-manufactured meters do not align with their technology in their network.

That is not true. All locally-manufactured meters and other meters that come into this country pass through the meter test station, which is EMSA in Oshodi. So, they have to test all the meters that come into this country and there are specifications. When we are making orders for meters, you give the manufacturers the specifications and we also conduct checks to ensure that the meters meet the standards. So, we deal with Mojec now and also MOMAS because they meet our local standards. So, we have no issues with local meters. But as for quantity, may be, yes; the local manufacturers may have some issues concerning quantity. When you look at the total number of meters to be deployed nationwide, you can say that the local manufacturers may not be able to meet this requirement now. But as we patronise them, they will gradually expand their factory and that means more job opportunities for Nigerians because they will employ more Nigerians, who are working for them. Many Nigerian youths earn their living working with the local manufacturers of meters.

Did you say that customers are not required to pay for these smart prepaid meters? Sure; the meters are for free. However, you know that I talked about meter roll-out plan, which is going to be implemented. With what we have put in place now, those who have no meter or those without functional meters will be taken care of within the next two or three years, while the old meters, which we are going to replace, will take another one year. All customers will get the meters for free but we will also roll-out to those customers, who cannot wait because some will get their meters now; some will get in two months’ time; some will get in the next one year. But those who cannot wait can subscribe to the Credited Advanced Payment for Metering Implementation (CAPMI) scheme whereby they pay us the cost of the meter and we will install the meter within 45 days, and thereafter we will start to pay the customers back. CAPMI is a special programme initiated by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC), that allows willing electricity customers to make payment to distribution companies for pre-paid meters and such payment is then refunded back to the customer through deductions from the monthly electricity bills. It is like a loan with interest.

You said that the meters will be installed outside on poles and high walls. Won’t that expose them to adverse weather conditions and affect their lifespan or do you have plans to change the meters after some years? I showed you a box where they will put the meter. They are weatherproof and they can last throughout the lifespan of the meter. We have no issues with that. It has been tested and confirmed but like any other thing- anything can really develop a minor fault but we have done our texts and we are sure that there are no issues.