NERC’s Directive On Estimated Billing

Electricity power consumers in Nigeria recently heaved a sigh of relief as the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), in response to sustained public outcry over outrageous billing by electricity Distribution Companies (DISCOs), barred the 11 distribution firms from charging residential customers above an average of N1,800.00 monthly until they (customers) are metered.
In an Order 197 signed by its Chairman, Prof. James Momoh, and the Commissioner, Legal, Licensing and Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye, NERC said the new order repeals the 2012 estimated billing regulation with effect from Thursday, February 20, 2020.
According to the new order, “The Estimated Billing Methodology Regulation is hereby repealed and shall cease to have effect as a basis for computing the consumption of unmetered customers in NESI”.
While noting that about 52 per cent of 10 million electricity consumers as at December, 2019 were unmetered, NERC directed that all unmetered residential and commercial customers shall not be invoiced for the consumption of energy if they are not metered by April 30, 2020.
Going forward, it said that R2 customers cannot be billed for more than the worth of 78 kilowatt hour (Kwh) of energy monthly which is about N1,800.00, adding that customers that consume less than 50Kwh will be billed at N4.00 per Kwh and maximum of N200.00 monthly.
As NERC exempts customers from any liability to pay any estimated bill issued by the DISCOs from May 1, 2020, the commission warned that “Any customer that rejects the installation of a meter on their premises by a DISCO shall not be entitled to supply and must be disconnected”.
Responding to the directive by NERC, the Chairman of Civil Liberties Organisation (CLO) in Anambra State, Mr Vincent Eze Ekwueme, is reported to have described it as “cheering news and a step in the right direction to show the citizenry that there is government to attend to their plights, predicaments, cries and sufferings”, noting that “It is painful and most despicable that estimated electricity bills imposed on consumers were outrageously high for services not rendered”.
The CLO boss lamented that “it is incredible but existential reality that consumers provide transformers, pay for installations, replace damaged equipment, yet were charged crazy estimated bill between N8,000 and N12,000 per month”, stating that “The only panacea for paying for services not rendered is to provide pre-paid meters to all consumers”.
In sync with the CLO, The Tide strongly commends the NERC for the courage and bold response to the lamentations of millions of Nigerian electricity consumers who have suffered years of economic enslavement in the hands of electricity distribution merchants called DISCOs.
While we are not unaware of the myriad of challenges the DISCOs also face in order to remain in business in a not-so-friendly climate, we think it is nothing short of an indefensible outright daylight robbery for them to continue to force consumers to pay exorbitant bills for energy neither supplied nor consumed.
It is an open fact that there are many defaulters and energy thieves, including government ministries, agencies, departments and sundry establishments, but to transfer this burden to innocent and hapless unmetered consumers instead of devising credible means of making the defaulters pay is, to say the least, callous and criminal.
As NERC comes to the rescue, we hope that it will also muster the requisite will to enforce and see this directive through. This is against the background of the fact that it did nothing to ensure compliance with its former directive that those who do not enjoy energy for two weeks in a month should not pay while even disconnected customers were continuously posted estimated bills.
In urging NERC to ensure full compliance with its directive this time around, we are minded to suggest that only smart pre-paid meters are approved for installation while analogue meters are completely phased out as the DISCOs’ operatives had often exploited the ignorance of customers to rip them off.
Eventhough we believe that the directive on estimated billing, if strictly adhered to, has capacity to resolve nearly all criminal issues within the distribution and consumption chain in the energy sector, it is still imperative to robustly continue to engage, sensitise and enlighten the public on the need to be responsible and to eschew undisciplined, rascally and aggressive behaviours in dealing with energy-related matters.
DISCOs, on their part, should realise that at the heart of altercations and violent confrontations from consumers is the manifest case of frustration borne out of a strong feeling of cheating, injustice and brazen robbery. Care must be taken by the distribution firms not to undermine or sabotage the new directive because therein lies the peaceful and mutually beneficial relationship between consumers and their service providers.
While we hope that the new directive will usher in a new era of reduced friction between DISCOs and their valued customers, we urge the Federal Government to sort out the other issues crippling the power sector in the country. It cannot be over-emphasised that any effort at economic growth and social stability will remain an exercise in futility in our nation until adequate power supply for the populace is achieved.