Power sector: 60 percent of customers still unmetered – EEDC

The Managing Director of the Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, Praveen Chorghade has revealed that about 60 percent of customers within its franchise are still unmetered.

Chorghade, who said this during the flag-off of another round of Mobile Meter Asset Provider, MAP, at the Jubilee Estate in Enugu, weekend, said the disco was working hard to close the metering gap.

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He said the issue of a meter bypass and energy theft had remained a challenge to the power sector, urging customers to collaborate with discos to boost power supply.

He noted that “The Meter Asset Provider (MAP) is a metering intervention initiative introduced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), which allows meter manufacturers and meter vendors to meter customers while they pay for the meters.

“The program is, however, designed in a way that customers will be reimbursed with the cost of the meter through energy credit, over a 36-installment period.

“The need to close the existing metering gap in our network has necessitated our quest to ramp up our metering efforts and move away from the estimated billing and direct connection.

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“The introduction of this Mobile MAP Metering is a clear innovative improvement on the usual MAP meter process which takes up to 10 working days to meter a customer and cut down the process to an “Instant Meter Program”, to enable EEDC to serve the customers with “meter at your doorstep”.

Chorghade announced that the initiative would be undertaken in all the States within the EEDC franchise area, stressing that “about 60 percent of our customers are still unmetered.”

He appealed to customers “to desist from tampering with these meters as they are not only contributing to leakages but also face a serious risk of disconnection and criminal prosecution in such situations.

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“We would request our esteemed customers not to allow other than authorized EEDC staff to have access to their meter installations, and directly get in touch with EEDC for any aspect related to metering, billing, and power supply issues through our customer care office, telephone lines and other available social media channels.”

The MD also urged customers to avoid the temptation of patronizing fraudsters who would come under the guise of EEDC staff with a view to shortchanging the process.