Amidst rising cost of electricity and complaints of the estimated billing system, the Federal Government has said it is targeting the installation of 36 million meters at least by the second quarter of this year.
Daily Trust assesses a recent tour of the Minister of State for Power, Engr. Goddy Jedy-Agba to the meter testing facility of the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) in Enugu.
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According to data on metering and electricity consumers obtained from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) last Friday, there are 11,841,819 (11.8m) registered electricity consumers across the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) as of December 2020.
Out of this figure, 4,425,628 (4.4m) customers have gotten meters while 7,416,191 (7.4m) meters are still needed for the consumers.
However, the DisCos have said several millions of meters are needed to replace faulty and obsolete ones. A standard meter has a life span of 10 to 15 years before it can be replaced.
However, Daily Trust learnt that a lot of meters across the states are already in this moribund condition and would need to be replaced.
Corroborating this, NERC in an order NERC/246/202 issued on March 2, 2021, notes that “over seven million customers are currently unmetered as indicated by customer enumeration data. It is also estimated that an additional three million meters are currently obsolete and due for replacement.”
To meet this demand for meters, Jedy-Agba said it is expected that over 36m electricity meters would be installed across the country before the end of the second quarter of 2021.
In a statement from his office, the minister of state said this is to enable the federal government restore confidence and trust in the power sector as consumers of electricity would no longer be extorted through an estimated billing system that is disputed for not matching consumption.
Towards this drive, the Federal Ministry of Power also recently held the first workshop on metering in partnership with the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) towards developing a model that will accelerate the meter installation process for all electricity consumers across the 11 DisCos.
Jedy-Agba had last week inspected the new NEMSA meter testing facility in Enugu where he said the level of work and installation of state-of-the-art equipment will ensure the processing of durability and certified fit for use, all imported electricity meters.
According to him, the power sector reforms of the present administration have to deal with new methods of boosting electricity. He said that will translate to statistical economic growth and development of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP), as the power grid has been at the highest level so far within the last one month.
Jedy-Agba also noted that the federal government directive that 36 million electricity consumers in Nigeria must be metered before the end of Q2 in 2021 is a strategic plan for the power sector.
Commenting, the Chief Electrical Officer of the Federation and Managing Director of NEMSA, Engr. Peter Ewesor, said the agency was ready to ensure that all imported electricity meters are tested at the point of entry to certify its technical fitness before installation.
Ewesor said the agency is already conducting Type Test for the meter brands and Routine test for all the meter units already imported to ensure that meters being installed by DisCos are fit for customers to get value for electricity paid for.
It has testing centres in Lagos, Kaduna, Benin and working for more facilities in Bauchi and Kano to provide flexibility for the handling of meter testing.
Meanwhile, according to data obtained from the ministry, the Federal Government under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) is ensuring that at least one million of the total meters being installed by the DisCos are given free to customers this year.
The programme kick-started in October 2020, with little breakthrough. However, ministry officials said there is remarkable progress as over 80 percent of meters have been supplied to the DisCos by meter manufacturers, enabled by a funding scheme from the Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN).
The metering process is being accelerated to stem the tide of complaints, NERC said. The power sector regulator, on its website, said it had received submission of comments on the review of the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) Regulations which was extended until March 24.
The Commission said it was working to streamline the MAP Regulations created in 2018 and the NMMP of 2020 to accelerate a clear metering policy.
