NERC bars PHCN from charging for metres

Electricity project stalled in Borno

THE Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said electricity consumers would no longer be required to pay for metres when the new tariff regime takes effect from June 1, this year.

Besides, the non-completion of 330 KV Gombe-Maiduguri power projects by the Federal Government has stalled the supply of 30 megawatts of electricity to Borno State.

This is despite the rehabilitation and installation of transformers in 16 wards and communities by the Ministry of Housing and Rural Electrifications (MHRE) to boost electricity supply and distribution.

Speaking at the power consumer assembly for the North Central zone in Ilorin, Kwara State yesterday, the NERC commissioner in charge of government and consumer affairs, Dr. Abba Ibrahim, said electricity metres, technically, belong to the Power Holding Company of Nigeria, (PHCN), adding that PHCN would provide metres for everybody.

Ibrahim, who said that a major benefit of the new electricity tariff regime would mean categorising consumers into different classes, added that the commission had a target of a period of 18 months for every electricity consumer to be provided a metre.

He also admonished would-be PHCN customers to go for pre-paid metres, adding that they would not have to pay anything when there was no service.

Ibrahim said another aspect of the new tariff order was the abolition of metre maintenance fee by the commission and added that the fee would no longer be charged.

The NERC boss, who said President Goodluck Jonathan had approved a subsidy of N50 billion to be applied specifically for consumers in the low income cadre as well as a commercial category including welders, and hairdressers, added that the rich consumers and industries would cross-subsidise the low income earners.

He also said that 80 per cent of Nigerians as residential consumers, would also benefit from the subsidy and cross-subsidy, adding that they would not see a significant rise in their tariff.

Ibrahim who assured that every consumer would be ‘metred’ within a maximum period of 18 months from June 1, 2012 identified the main problems of electricity in Nigeria as the absence of electricity itself, adding that there was no sufficient ‘metering’.

MHRE Commissioner, Sugum Mai Mele who spoke yesterday in Maiduguri at a press briefing to mark one year in office of Governor Kashim Shettima’s All Nigeria People’s Party (ANPP) administration in Borno State said the non-completion of the 330 KV power project had deprived the state of electricity supply and distribution, because all the required transformers and relief sub-stations in the 16 wards and communities were completed by the ministry.

He said because of the non-completion of the 330 KV power project, Borno could only get seven megawatts of electricity daily from the PHCN, as against 30 megawatts recently promised by the Minister of Power, Prof. Berth Nnaji.