Disconnect customers rejecting meters – NERC orders discos distributors

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission on Wednesday ordered power distribution companies to start disconnecting electricity consumers who reject meters.

Recently, the Federal Government commenced the mass deployment of about six million meters across the country in order to halt estimated billing and improve service delivery in the power sector.

But operators in the industry observed that some power users were opposed to being metered in order not to pay the exact sum for the electricity that they consume.

To address this, the power sector regulator issued an order on Wednesday mandating Discos to commence the disconnection of electricity users who opposed being metered.

This came as the acting Managing Director, Transmission Company of Nigeria, Sule Abdulaziz, told journalists in Abuja on Wednesday that the recent collapse of the country’s power grid was restored within 40 minutes.

Our correspondent gathered that the directives from the NERC to the 11 Discos were contained in various regulatory orders to the firms, for instance, Order No/NERC/220/2020, with the title, “Amended order on the capping of estimated bills for Yola Electricity Distribution Plc,” was issued to Yola Disco.

The regulator said the new orders were amendments to the previous ones on capping of estimated billing issued by the NERC in February 2020.

In the latest regulatory instrument, the NERC declared, “Any customer that rejects the installation of a meter on their premises by (Disco) shall not be entitled to supply and must be disconnected by (the Disco), and shall only be reconnected to the network after the meter has been installed.”

The directives to the Discos, which were jointly signed by the NERC Chairman, James Momoh, and a Commissioner, Dafe Akpeneye, took effect from November 1, 2020.

The order further stipulated other things that must be adhered to by power distributors, particularly as regards the capping of electricity bills for non-metered power users nationwide.