Power Supply: Expert Wants Mobile Prepaid Meter System

An Electrical Engineer and
Managing Director of Globe Electricals, Engr Chioma Nnabugwu, has advocated for a mobile prepaid meter system in the country.
Nnabugwu who spoke yesterday  in Port Harcourt in an interview with The Tide said there is need to add mobile component into the meter system to relieve customers who wish to move away from one residence or location to another within the same area covered by a particular electricity distribution company.
He said, if taken, it would check a situation where some customers would abandon electricity debts in one flat and move to a new location.
The Managing Director said, it has become rampant for some customers to accumulate debts in one location and run to another area and leave such debts to be paid by new tenants”.
According to him, a mobile prepaid meter would be akin to the SIM card component in the mobile  phone  such that, “wherever you take your phone, the credit or  debit goes with you”.
He noted that for proper powering in the country, the electricity distribution companies should in conjunction with Nigerian  Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) involve in massive enlightenment as a way of changing the orientation  of the people in the use of electricity.
“Some persons still have the old belief that power distribution is a government thing. They must be made to understand that the trend has changed. When you owe, it is not the government that you are owing but a private firm that has taken over from government”, he stated.
“He emphasised that until proper orientation is evolved, people would still leave their switches on even when they are away and when asked to pay for the energy they wasted, they would to argue with you”, he stressed.