The management of Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) has disclosed that it inherited over 700,000 unmetered customers when it took over from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
The company also disclosed that it committed over N10 billion for the procurement and installation of prepaid meters to teeming customers in the distribution zone.
This was made known by EEDC ‘s head of communications, Mr. Emeka Ezeh.
He said that it has always been the desire of the firm to meter all customers to stop estimated billing.
To achieve that, the spokesperson said that they had procured certified prepaid meters at the cost of over N10 billion, pointed out that due to lack of adequate funds, they cannot at present provide meters to all their customers.
In his words: “We have started metering our customers but we are not yet there. For us to meter all our customers, we need time and resources but the resources are not readily available. We have committed over N10 billion to procuring and providing meters to our customers. We have already started metering our customers but there is no way we can meter all our customers at the same time. We do not have the finance to meter all our customers.
He disclosed that for them to meet up with the demand of providing meters to their customers, the National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, was trying to help them ensure that all their customers were metered
Ezeh noted that they needed time and resources to achieve their aims. “We need time, we need resources to meter all our customers. We inherited over 700, 000 unmetered customers and it will take time before we provide all of them with meters.”
According to him, the smart meters and their installations are free .He advised customers to report any of their personnel that demands payment for the meter or the installation.
He disclosed that the smart meters, because of the way they were e prepared, would help to minimise the problem of meter bye-pass and energy theft.
“The smart meter will minimise meter byepass and energy theft,” he said, explaining that energy theft occurs when people connect electricity to their homes and offices without meters and without being on estimated billing while meter byepass means tampering with the meter so that it will not read while current is going on.
On the issue of load shading Ezeh said that Nigeria generates about 3000 megawatts of electricity and this necessitated the load shedding to serve their customers.
He, however, added that if power generation improves, power distribution would improve.
He advised customers to procure energy bulbs to conserve energy and to switch off electrical appliances when they they are not in use. He advised them also to learn how to conserve energy instead of wasting them.
