Minister for Power, Works and Housing Minister, Babatunde Raji Fashola, has revealed that 11 electricity distribution companies (DisCos) require N220 billion for the metering of customers,
Fashola, who was the guest lecturer at this year’s edition of the public lecture series of the Department of Economics of the University of Lagos, spoke on Power sector reforms: Challenges and the way forward.
He said the Federal Government wants to improve power on sustainable basis. Through the Power Sector Reform Programme (PSRP), the government, he said, would achieve, among others, the metering of customers, and their appropriate billing.
Fashola noted that meters by the same manufacturers were calibrated for each DisCo’s use, such that you cannot use a meter calibrated for Ikeja DisCo in Eko DisCo without recalibration. Meters, the minister added, cannot be installed without a visit to the customer’s home for audit assessment,adding that DisCos liquidity problem makes it difficult for them to access credit to order meters.
“One DisCo requires over N20billion to meter. The consumer base does not capture all those who consume power, and without meters, the DisCos aggregate power distributed to a destination and estimate of the bill is difficult.’’ Reinforcing the need for whistle blowing for energy theft as a civic responsibility, he said such reports would expose customers who don’t pay or steal energy,” he said.
“Those who are resisting the installation of meters and assaulting DisCo workers who seek to install meters must stop it. It is a criminal offence. The government had in 2003, 14 years ago, issued a contract for the supply of three million meters to NEPA/PHCN estimated at N37 billion.
“That contract was not performed until the privatisation was concluded in 2013, and was inherited by the Buhari government as a court case in which a judgment of N119 billion had been signed against government. We have worked to get the case out of court, negotiate the judgment and go back to the N37billion contract to see how many meters it can now provide, and how to install them. We are still finalising the terms of agreement,” he added
On what the government is doing to improve supply, the minister said: “We recognise that our power supply is not enough and what we have done is do the simplest thing, get more power. So our road map seeks to get, first incremental power, progress to stable power, and then achieve uninterrupted power.
