NERC Seeks Sanctions For Customers Who Tamper Meters

THE Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has issued directive on meter reading, billing ,cash collection and credit management to guide operators the issue of revenue collection. NERC added that any customer caught tampering with meter should be disconnected and fined in accordance with the commission’s regulations.

NERC Chairman, Dr Sam Amadi, made this recommendation in Port Harcourt during a meeting with the Nigerian branch of Southern African Revenue Protection Association (SARPA). In a speech presented on his behalf by a director in the agency, Mr. Shittu Shaibu, Amadi noted that the viability and survival of every business lay in its ability to protect its revenue.

He went further to say that the electricity industry solely depends on the distribution companies to collect revenues accruable to all the supply chain, which include generation and transmission, adding that 100 per cent metering hold the key to absolute revenue protection.

He further noted that metering and billing for actual electricity consumed by users was integral to commercial management of electricity utility, explaining that distribution sector provided the crucial last mile to connectivity.

Amadi said: “In electricity supply to final consumers, losses refer to the amounts of electricity injected into the transmission and distribution grids that are not paid for by users. Total losses have two components: technical and non-technical.

Technical losses occur naturally and consist mainly of power dissipation in electricity system components, such as transmission and distribution lines, transformers, and measurement systems. Non-technical losses are caused by actions external to the power system and consist primarily of electricity theft, non-payment by customers, and errors in accounting and record-keeping”.

Technical Advisor of SARPA,Mr Rens Bimdeman, commended the efforts of NERC for managing a difficult terrains, as electricity was key to an industrialised economy, which he said, Nigeria was striving towards.