Benin Electricity Distribution Company Plc (BEDC) has installed more than 25 percent of the 90,870 meters targeted for customers under the first phase of the National Mass Metering Programme (NNMP) expected to be completed in the next three months.
The company disclosed this in a communiqué issued at the end of a town hall meeting on “Facilitating metering and Combating Electricity Theft in BEDC states,” organised recently by the Stakeholders Democracy Network for critical stakeholders in the electricity sector in Benin, the Edo State capital.
According to the communiqué, BEDC plans to eliminate estimated billing for unmetered customers in its four franchise states of Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo over a period of six months as part of the NNMP.
“BEDC is now installing meters on the pole for customers in Bands A, B and C, as the initial focus to curtail energy theft and meter bypass while the company has also began community metering where transformers of over 600 communities have been metered.”
It noted the growing joint efforts by communities in combating electricity theft in the BEDC coverage areas and added that metering under NNMP is free and customers do not have to pay.
It warned that BEDC and industry stakeholders could sue and be sued on accounts of electricity theft and consumer rights violation.