NERC: Discos Responsible for Replacement of Obsolete, Faulty

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission ( NERC) has issued a new order to Distribution Companies (Discos), directing them, to among others, ensure that customers with faulty or obsolete devices were replaced, without placing them on estimated billing.

In the order marked NERC/246/2021 signed by its Chairman, Mr. Sanusi Garba, the commission stated that part 1 section 1 .2.2 of the Metering Code (MC) provides that only modern accurate meters systems with reliable communication facilities shall be deployed across the industry.

The commission noted that over 7 million customers were currently unmetered as indicated by customer enumeration data, noting that an additional 3 million meters were currently obsolete and due for replacement.

NERC posited that the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) regulations came into force on 3 April 2018 to encourage the development of independent and competitive meter services, eliminate estimated billing practices, attract private investment for the provision of metering services and close the metering gap through accelerated meter rollout.

However, it noted that the commission started receiving complaints from metered end-use customers in the fourth quarter of 2020, that they had been served meter replacement notices by Discos.

In the order to the Discos, the regulator maintained that customers also complained that meters were not inspected by the Discos prior to the issuance of the meter replacement notices.

Added to that, NERC explained that the meter replacement notices did not specify the fault which required the meter to be replaced, saying that the Discos removed meters and placed customers on estimated billing.

As a result, NERC insisted that some customers had not been able to vend on the new meters as activation tokens were not issued and had failed or refused to transfer units from the old meter to the new meter.

It also accused power distributors of billing consumers for loss of revenue that is transferred to the new meter as an outstanding debt without establishing meter tampering or unauthorised access.

“The commission hereby orders as follows: Discos shall grant priority to the metering of unmetered customers under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).

“Discos may replace faulty or obsolete meters under the National Mass Metering Programme but these replacements must be done in strict compliance with the Metering Code (MC) and other regulatory instruments of the commission.

“Discos shall inspect meters of metered end-use customers and the replacement notice shall contain the date of inspection, name, designation and signature of the officer that inspected the meter, the fault identified in the meter and the date for the installation of the replacement meter,” it stated.

NERC demanded that it shall be copied on all replacement notices issued to end-use customers for the purpose of conducting random reviews of the replacement exercise.