Over 49,188 meters installed in Q2, 2024 — NERC
…Receives 4,469 complaints in Q2
By Seun Ibiyemi
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said that over 49,188 meters were installed in the second quarter of 2024.
This even as the commission said it received 4,469 complaints in the second quarter, 2024 through the Customer Complaint Unit.
The commission said this on its website in its second quarter 2024 report in Abuja on Thursday.
According to NERC, the 49,188 represents a decrease of 60.86 percent compared to the 125,664 meters installed in the first quarter.
The report said that during the quarter, 35,985 meters representing 73.16 percent of the total installations, were installed under the Meter Asset Providers (MAP) framework.
It said that 264 meters representing 0.54 percent were installed under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) framework.
“The Vendor Financed framework accounted for 12,843 meter representing 26.11 percent of the installations, while 96 meter installations were recorded under the DisCo Financed framework representing 0.20 per cent of the installations,” it said.
The report said that it expected the Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos), to utilise a combination of the five meter financing frameworks that have been provided in the 2021 Meter Asset Provider and National Mass Metering Programme.
It said that the meter framework recommended by the commission was to close their respective metering gaps as a safeguard for customers against exploitation due to the lack of meters.
Also, the Commission said it has received 4,469 complaints in the second quarter, 2024 through the Customer Complaint Unit.
The report said that 1,000 of the complaints were resolved corresponding to a 22.38 per cent resolution rate.
It said that customers of Ikeja and Eko Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) lodged 1,704 and 1,052 complaints accounting for 38.13 per cent and 23.54 per cent respectively.
“Conversely, Aba Power had 16 and this accounted for the lowest number of complaints representing 0.36 per cent.
“During the quarter, customer complaints about billing constituted 30.90 per cent of the total complaints.
“Other common issues among the 4,469 complaints received were complaints about tariff band amounting to 24.70 percent.
“Service interruption represented 17.92 percent of the complaints, metering represented 17.72 per cent and these four complaints categories cumulatively accounted for 91.25 per cent of the total complaints in the quarter,” it said.
The report said that the complaints on billing that were resolved during the quarter resulted in a credit adjustment on customers’ bills to the tune of N134.127 billion.
“The commission notes the poor resolution rate of 22.38 percent of complaints lodged at the NERC-CCU in quarter 2 and is taking steps to improve the speediness of complaints resolution by DisCos,” it said.
The report also said that 2,625 active appeals were received consisting of 905 pending appeals in quarter 1 and 1,720 new appeals in quarter 2 across the NERC 32 forum offices.
It said that the appeal represents 8.07 percent increase compared to the 2,429 active appeals in the previous quarter 1.
“Compared to quarter 1, the pending appeals carried over in the second quarter increased by 129 representing 16.62 percent, while new appeals increased by 67 amounting to 4.05 percent.
“The forum office serving Ibadan DisCo have the highest number of active appeals of 717 while the forum office serving Yola DisCo has the fewest appeals of eight in the quarter under review,” it said.
The report said that the total number of forum sittings in the quarter under
review increased by 4.17 percent from 72 sittings in the first quarter to 75.
“Cumulatively, the forum offices recorded a decrease of 2.65 in appeal resolution rate between quarter 1 and quarter 2 representing 57.55 percent vs. 54.90 percent.
“The decrease in complaint resolution rate despite an increase in forum sitting can be attributed to the number of active appeals during the quarter under review compared to quarter 1,” it said .
The report said that the commission would continue to put in more effort to ensure that the forum panels sit regularly to increase the resolution rate and reduce the number of pending appeals carried over across quarters.
