PPower: NERC Investigates 11 Discos’ Metering Claims, Estimated Billing

*Says customers now pay excessively on estimated consumption

Chineme Okafor in Abuja
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Thursday said it has set up an investigative task force to keenly look into claims by the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos) in Nigeria’s power sector that they have installed sizeable amount of electricity meters to their customers since they took over operations in November 2013.

NERC also said it has set up a similar task force to investigate complaints by estimated electricity consumers in the 11 distribution networks that they are now excessively billed by their Discos for electricity supplied to them.

The commission’s acting head, Dr. Anthony Akah, disclosed this to reporters when he commissioned a new customers’ complaints forum office in Abakaliki, capital of Ebonyi State.
Akah noted that the investigations would be conducted with a view to establishing class actions against Discos that may have flaunted its related regulations on metering and estimated billing to their customers.

He said the commission had reasons to doubt the claims on metering brought before it by the Discos, adding that since 2013, Enugu Disco which supplies electricity to Ebonyi and four other States in the South East have done poorly with a current metering gap of 512,335 out of the 732,423 customers captured under it.
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