DISCOs Promise Aggressive Meter Rollout

Electricity distribution
companies (DISCOs) say they plan an aggressive rollout of metering for all consumers of electricity in the country.
Eko, Kano, Kaduna and Jos DISCOs, said, following this ambitions move to address one of the most controversial issues affecting their operations, plans are in top gear to deploy large number of meters they acquired for  2016, starting from May.
In similar way, Abuja DISCO assured that 100,000 households would be metered by the end of the year, just as Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) promised to install 110,000 by  the end of the year.
The above resolutions formed  part of  a communiqué issued at the end of a meeting held by operators in the Power sector recently in Calabar, Cross River State.
The meeting was between the minister of Power, Works and Housing and operators of the power sector and was chaired by the Permanent Secretary (Power) of the Federal Ministry of Power, Works and Housing, Louis Edozien.
The essence of the meeting was to identify and find practical solutions to issues facing the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
The communiqué said the operator were committed to treating all decisions made as binding, and that an unanimous resolution was made regarding strong sanctions against operators who would fail to act on the decisions arrived at.
The meeting also acknowledge the need to improve on the  responsiveness and awareness of the DISCOs’ Customer Complaints Units (CCU) to ensure that all complaints from paying customers were  acknowledged and also resolved swiftly.
The communiqué further noted that resolutions were made to publicise dedicated customer complaints lines in four   national newspapers in the next two weeks by each DISCO, in order to support this objective.
According to the communiqué, NERC informed the meeting of the activation of the agreement between Paras Energy and Eko DISCO to provide  40MW to the Lagos area, as well as the agreement between Ikeja and Eko DISCOs, with Egbin Power Plant for dedicated supply totaling 220mw.
It further stated: “The meeting resolved that Port Harcourt DISCO and Calabar and Ibom Power Plants can proceed with their bilaterally negotiated agreement to supply currently stranded power, starting with 150mw to 250mw. Port Harcourt DISCO will invest in infrastructure in Akwa Ibom and Cross Rivers to receive the power and  deliver it to customers at the approved tariff.
“TCN announced that projects critical to improving power distribution in Aja, Kebbi, Kafanchan, Otukpo, Makurdi, Wudil Afam, Daura and Kwanar Dangora are completed or nearing completion”