The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) said it is ready to deploy 500,000 meters using Meter Assets Providers (MAP) firms it has procured, to completely meter all its customers.
The Managing Director of Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC), the core investor of AEDC, Mr Emmanuel Katepa in an interview on Wednesday said, “We have been ready for a while as we have taken our contracts to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for approval. AEDC as last mid-year has metered 54 percent of customers.
“Before MAP, we had a 222,000 metering contract. We expect another 500,000 units under MAP which will be 100 percent metering of all our customers. If NERC approves our procurement, then we can start almost immediately,” Katepa said.
Clarifying issues of energy load rejection as portrayed by the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCNJ) recently, the AEDC investor said the auto re-closer system installed at its injection substations now enables it to accept more energy and serve areas where customers pay for the energy to solve liquidity issue in the electricity market.
“If you check the NERC record, AEDC consistently take excess load of 13 percent from the grid rather than the approved 11.5 percent energy allocation.
“We had a N4 billion penalty on us for taking excess load in the past when the rule prohibits DisCos from taking surplus power,” Katepa explained.
On the reduction of the Aggregate Technical, Collection and Commercial losses (ATC&C) of the DisCo, Mr Katepa lauded the federal government for ensuring that some Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs) now pay their energy bills.
He said, “It showed a downward trend through the year (2018) and I think this is where we can show impact of government agencies paying their debt. At the end of the year our ATC&C was in the mid-30s, around 36 percent.
“We are targeting to be in the mid-20s, about 25 to 28 percent by the end of the year but we need the support of our MDA customers to achieve those numbers,” Katepa noted.
Join Daily Trust WhatsApp Community For Quick Access To News and Happenings Around You.
