The management of Ikeja Electric (IE) says it has invested about N11 billion on the expansion project of its network and replacement of vandalised equipment in the last three years.
Mr Aigbe Olotu, the company’s Chief Finance Officer, in Lagos against the backdrop of ongoing challenges facing distribution companies.
Olotu said that funding was one of the main challenges facing the distribution companies as the price of gas was based on international gas pricing denominated in dollars.
According to him, in the last three years, the company invested about N11 billion on customers enumeration, metering of distribution transformers, asset mapping and Advance Metering Infrastructure (AMI).
Olotu said: “Status quo metering which is trading point metering, consumers metering, AMI metering, asset mapping, and all the consumers meters including replacement of vandalised equipment, gulped about N11 billion.
“It is difficult to estimate what has been spent on the replacement of vandalised equipment.
“What vandalism does is that it increases cost of maintenance and replacement; 50 per cent of what we spent is on the replacement of vandalised equipment.
“If my total maintenance gulped N6 to N7 billion in the last three years, half of it went to replacement of what has been vandalised.’’
He said that metering exercise does not end because “as you are covering that gap, new communities are developing.
“Overtime, estimated billing will be decreasing until you get to a point where only new structures will be estimated for the period they are awaiting metering.
“This is because, the law actually says nobody should be connected to the grid until it is metered.
“Going forward, no new estate will be connected without a meter.
“The commitment by the investors is to meter all backlog within five years,’’ Olotu said.
