Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), has said existing metering gap is choking customers on estimated billing and therefore urged Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) to utilise any of the five meter financing frameworks that have been provided in the 2021 MAP and NMMP to close their respective metering gaps.
This is as the Commission reveals that a total of 148,389 meters were installed in Quarter 3, 2023.
According to NERC, this represents a decrease of 32,670 installations compared to the 181,059 meters installed in 2023/Q2.
The commission said this in its Q3, 2023 report pasted on its website at the weekend.
The report said that during the quarter,147,736 meters were installed under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP} framework while 207 meters were installed under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP).
The regulator said that the vendor financed framework recorded 446 meter installations while no meter installations were recorded under the DisCo Financed framework.
”As a safeguard for customers against exploitation due to the lack of meters, the commission has continued to issue monthly energy caps for all feeders in each DisCo.
”This sets the maximum amount of energy that may be billed to an unmetered customer for the respective month based on gross energy received by the DisCo and consumption by metered customers, ”it said.