Moses Ofodeme
Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has threatened to sanction seven electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) for failing to comply with its order on capping estimated billing for some customers within their network.
NERC, which is the regulator of the Nigerian Power Supply Industry (NESI) made its intention known in a notice issued to the DisCos, according to a post on its official Twitter account on Tuesday.
It said: “NERC has issued notices of intention to commence enforcement action against seven DisCos over their failure to comply with the Order 197/2020 on capping of unmetered R2 and C1 electricity customers.
“The DisCos are Benin, Enugu, Eko, Ikeja, Kano, Kaduna and Port Harcourt.
“The DisCos have 14 days beginning from June 4 to explain why the commission should not sanction them over their alleged non-compliance.”
NERC had on February 20 issued the order of capping estimated billing of the customers following complaints of exploitation by DisCos.
It said: “DisCos shall ensure that all customers on tariff Class A1 are properly identified and metered by April 30.
“R2 single phase customers now have energy cap of 78kwhr per month and a tariff of N24 kwhr. The maximum such a customer will be billed is N1, 872 per month.
“This billing is capped during the transitional period till they are metered but the actual amount shall vary in the event of any tariff review affecting such customer class.
“Residents that consume less than 50kwh will be billed at N4 per kwhr and a maximum of N200 monthly,” the commission said.