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The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) recently disclosed that electricity consumers in the country would pay between N36,991.50 and N67,055.85 for installation and maintenance of electricity meters in their premises by approved third-party meter providers of the distribution companies (Discos). The arrangement, which comes under the Meter Asset Providers (MAPs) scheme, will ensure massive deployment of meters to electricity consumers across the country.
The project is expected to close the huge metering gap and reduce the estimated billing practice. According to the General Manager, Public Affairs of NERC, Dr. Usman Arabi, the commission had issued MAPs permits to successful agents for Abuja and Jos Discos.
Under the arrangement, MAPs are expected to charge a maximum of N36,991.50 for single phase meters and N67,055.85 for three phase meters. According to NERC, these costs also cover supply, installation, maintenance and replacement of meters. The rollout of meters is expected to commence not later than May 1. We welcome the new resolve of the NERC and the Discos to provide prepaid meters to electricity consumers in the country. It is hoped that the scheme will be faithfully implemented.
We also believe that if the meters are made available, consumers will pay for their power needs without being prompted to do so. However, it is worth pointing out that the challenge of the power sector goes beyond the provision of prepaid meters.
What most power consumers in the country need is steady supply of electricity. Nigerians are tired of epileptic power supply. Now that NERC and the Discos are working together to provide meters, they should strive to ensure steady power supply.
It is sad that since the privitisation of the power sector and the subsequent unbundling of the distribution function of the Power Holding Corporation of Nigeria (PHCN) into about 18 distribution companies (Discos), the power supply in the country has not significantly improved. This is the problem that the Discos must tackle frontally.
We call for seamless implementation of the MAPs scheme to ensure a win-win situation for all the stakeholders. There is no doubt that the provision of prepaid meters to the consumers would go a long way in ensuring optimal energy consumption. The national energy need has been put at between 40,000MW and 60,000MW. This is the target government should strive to meet.
Unfortunately, the nation is generating between 4,000MW and 7,000MW of electricity. Therefore, all efforts must be geared towards ensuring that the power gap in the country is bridged. Operators in the system must look beyond their interests and ensure stable electricity supply in the country.
Despite the injection of about N5 trillion into the power sector by successive administrations, it is sad that the situation has not improved so much. We, therefore, urge the government to aggressively pursue power generation from hydro, thermal and renewable energy sources. We believe that it is through this approach that the government can tackle the nation’s power problem.
We hope that the government is still implementing the planned off-grid renewable energy solutions such as the rural mini-grids, stand alone home solutions, Independent Power Projects (IPPs) for federal universities, teaching hospitals and large-scale solar PV projects.
Government should, if it has not done so, complete the 10MW Katsina wind farm, 30 MW Gurara Hydropower, 129 MW Dadin Kowa Hydropower, 40MW Kashimbila Hydropower, 700MW Zungeru Hydropower and 14 Solar Independent Power Projects.
Since it has been projected that the government should invest not less than $2 billion in the power sector annually for ten years to ensure steady power supply, it should think seriously in that direction. If the government can solve the nation’s power problem, it is believed that our other problems can be solved as well.
Now that the ‘crazy’ bill challenge is being tackled with the planned massive provision of prepaid meters, we believe that the nation’s electricity problem will soon be resolved.
