Yemisi Izuora
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), said that Benin Electric Distribution Company (BEDC), has sustained its lead in pre-paid metering of electricity consumers during the second quarter of the year.
The Agency’s statistics, which also reflected the average power generation within the period, said BEDC was closely followed by Abuja Disco and Ibadan Disco while Yola Disco recorded the least total number of customers metered.
The NBS also pointed out that the power generation statistics for Q2 2018 reflected that a total average of 81,561 MWh of energy was generated daily by power stations, saying, “Daily energy generation attained a peak of 98,573 MWh on the 18th of April 2018. Thermal stations generated a peak of 77,010 MWh on 18th April, 2018 while the hydro stations attained a peak of 22,858 MWh on the 28th of June, 2018.
However, the lowest daily energy generation of 52,074 MWh was attained on 9th of June 2018.
“Total number of consumers with prepaid meters increased by 1.59 per cent to 1.62 million customers in Q2 2018 from 1.59m customers in Q1 2018,” NBS noted.
The report said the number of consumers with prepaid meters rose from 1,496,587 at the end of 2017 to 1,589,805 at the end of March 2018, showing that BEDC issued 260,667 meters during the first quarter, while Abuja distribution company issued 282,868 meters, and Ibadan distribution company, the largest Disco, followed by 254,261 prepaid meters to its customers.
Ikeja Disco metered 157,797 consumers in its franchise area while Eko Disco issued 158,157 prepaid meters.
In addition, Kaduna Disco also issued 138,164 prepaid meters as at March 31, while Enugu Disco had 116,623 of its consumers metered.
It said Port Harcourt Disco distributed 66,507 meters to its customers; Kano Disco followed with 63,037 while Jos Disco had 54,395 metered customers.
With 37,329 prepaid meters, Yola Disco had the least distribution, according to the data.
The data also revealed that the power generation statistics at the end of march indicated that a total average of 92,747 megawatts per hour of energy was generated daily by power stations.
Also, daily energy generation attained a peak of 105,755MW on March 14, 2018.
Earlier in the year, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) said the metering gap for electricity consumers in the country had increased to about 4.7 million.
It also said that the 11 Discos had metered over three million electricity customers in the country as at August 2017.
The report, published on NERC’s website, indicated that total number of customers of the Discos as at August stood at over seven million.
It further shows that Ibadan Disco, with highest number of customers, records the highest metering gap of 864,760, while Eko Disco has 173,643, the lowest in the period under review.
The report indicated that part of the mandate for the privatization of the Discos was the rolling out of metering to the consumers.
According to the report, 100 per cent metering of consumers will result into revenue protection and loss reduction, and that provision of meters would provide safeguards from unfair billing practices for customers.
It added that the commission was working on modalities to eliminate all forms estimated billing.
The report indicated that innovative options were being put in place by the commission to improve status of metering and customer concerns on estimated billing in the NESI.