Energy Theft, Obsolete Infrastructure Deepen Nigeria’s Electricity Crisis – Expert

The President, Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, Mr Kunle Olubiyo, says Nigeria’s electricity sector continues to suffer massive revenue losses due to widespread energy theft and obsolete metering systems.

Olubiyo, said this in an interview with Newsmen to Monday in Abuja.

He said energy theft occurs at both the consumer and institutional levels across the electricity value chain from generation to transmission and distribution.

According to Olubiyo, at the consumer level electricity theft includes metre bypass, illegal connections and unauthorised access to power without proper billing.

According to him, some customers would dig underground cables directly to their homes or businesses without being metered, while others exploit estimated billing systems to consume electricity without payment.

“Whether through metre bypass or illegal connection, many customers are using electricity for free. That is energy theft,” he said.

He also alleged that institutional energy theft exists within the power sector, particularly through defective, obsolete, or wrongly installed metres used in monitoring electricity generation and distribution.

He said that wholesale metres installed at critical interfaces among generation companies (GenCos), transmission companies, and distribution companies (DisCos) were often out-dated or improperly configured.

He said those could lead to inaccurate readings and inflated subsidy claims.

“If 4,000 megawatts is generated and 7,000 megawatts is recorded, that is energy theft because the excess energy does not get to consumers,” he stated.

The expert further said  some operators in the sector allegedly exploit maintenance and repair contracts through inflated contract sums and possible collaboration with vandals.

He also cited the deployment of secure pole-mounted metres in military barracks as an example of how technology can curb metre tampering and unauthorised access.

He, therefore said the sector had to urgently address infrastructure decay, weak regulation, poor investment, and corruption within the value chain.

Otherwise, according to him, Nigeria’s electricity industry will continue to face liquidity challenges, revenue losses and unstable power supply.