By Olakunle Olakunle
Desperate times, they say, call for desperate measures. Indeed, Nigerians are gradually waking up to the reality of high electricity tariff with the adoption of stringent energy conservation strategies aimed at reducing their electricity consumption and bills. Organisations classified as Maximum Demand (MD) Customers are equally not left out in the race to lower their energy consumption as well as their monthly electricity bills.
The prohibitive cost of electricity has continued to generate huge concerns among Nigerians in the recent months especially with the classification of electricity consumers into bands where customers in Band A with a minimum of 20 hours of electricity supply pay as high as N209 for a unit of electricity.
The Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, MAN, has repeatedly voiced its concern over the high electricity tariff, calling on the government to conduct a transparent review of the electricity tariff structure as it is impacting negatively on business in the country.
The anger over high electricity tariff is perhaps more palpable at household and community levels, where electricity consumers on Band A often resort to protests with calls on their Distribution Companies (DisCos) to either downgrade their communities from Band A to cheaper Bands with less electricity supply or reject the planned migration of their communities from lower Bands to Band A.
An instance of this was a recent protest by residents of Ilasamaja community in Mushin Local Government Area of Lagos, rejecting the planned migration from Band B to Band A.
But beyond the outright rejection of being moved to Bands with high tariffs, Nigerians are devising cost-cutting measures aimed at reducing their energy consumption and electricity bills. Findings by Sunday Sun revealed that most companies with machinery now settle for energy saving machines with many others equipping their machines with power-saving equipment.
Mr. Segun Adejumo, who runs a polythene company said he decided to equip the energy consuming machines in his company with energy-saving devices in order to reduce his monthly electricity bills.
“One of the cost-cutting measures I have adopted is to equip some of the machines with inverters. This helps to conserve energy and reduce my electricity bills. Since I equipped some of the machines with inverters there has been a marginal reduction in my electricity bills. When I say marginal. I actually mean it because what we are charged monthly is just too outrageous. I hope we would be able to achieve further reduction in the energy we consume when we are able to equip the remaining machines, especially the bigger ones with inverters,” he stated.
Mr Erasmus Ogu, a resident of Ipaja, Lagos lives in a building where he shares a prepaid meter with other tenants.
To prevent reckless electricity consumption and wastage, each of the residents whom he shares the meter with agreed to purchase meter readers to monitor and conserve their energy use.
With the device, Erasmus told Sunday Sun that each of the tenants is at liberty to purchase the units of electricity he or she can afford.
“A tenant may subscribe for N6,000 worth of units of electricity while another may subscribe for N5,000. Another may want N4,000 worth of electricity. The function of the meter reader is to help monitor each tenant’s consumption. Once the person reaches his limit, the person will be switched off from the meter with the help of the circuit breaker attached to the meter readers. This way we are able to monitor and control each tenant’s consumption. The device helps to eliminate wasteful use of electricity by any of the tenants,” he said.
Not so many people see any advantage in being categorised as Band A electricity consumers.
To a number of people, it is more of a financial burden that calls for extreme self-denial from having access to regular power supply as they closely regulate their electricity consumption to avoid heavy billing. A resident of Ajenifuja, Ota in Ado-Odo Ota Local Government Area of Ogun State, Mrs Yemisi Onipede told Sunday Sun that despite enjoying regular power supply averaging 20 hours daily in her community, the majority of the residents of the community hardly leave their meter on for long hours on a daily basis.
According to Mrs Onipede, most residents turn off their meters between certain periods of time and leave it on at a particular period of time daily.
Her words: “Occupants of most houses in my area, for instance, have an agreement on when to put on their meters and when to switch off. In my house on weekdays, we switch our meter on at 5:00 a.m and turn it off at 8:00 am. And during the rainy season, when we don’t have to make use of fans, we switch it on at 5:00 p.m and switch it off again at 11:00 pm. On Saturdays, we don’t turn it on until 6:00 a.m and switch it off at 12:00 p.m and again turn it on between 6:00 p.m and 11:00p.m during cold weather,” she explained.
There are more desperate measures adopted by Nigerians in a bid to beat prohibitive electricity bills.
Another of such measures is a collaborative arrangement between electricity consumers under different bands with different tariff plans.
Under this arrangement, the party with cheaper tariff plans grants the other party with high electricity tariff the access to use some of his or her energy consuming appliances such as pressing irons and freezers in their apartment.
Findings by Sunday Sun revealed this strategy is mostly practiced among people living in the same areas, but under different Bands.
A resident of Ilapo community in AIT area of Alagbado, Lago, Mrs Abibat Azeez told Sunday Sun that she had relocated her freezer to her sister’s house at Aminkale community in the same area since she could no longer use it in her apartment due to high electricity tariff.
“I took my freezer to my sister’s place so that it doesn’t develop fault since I can no longer use it in my house. My sister uses it and whenever I need to preserve anything that I may not use immediately, I take it to her house and preserve it there until I need it,” she revealed.
Speaking in the same, Mr Isaac Orumen said he has ceased to use pressing iron in his apartment since his area was migrated to Band A.