FCCPC to sanction DisCos for service failures, non-compliance with power sector rules
The Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC) has announced that it will henceforth sanction Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) and other offenders who fail to comply with extant rules and regulations in the power sector.
This was made known by the Executive Vice Chairman of FCCPC, Mr Babatunde Irukera, at the Electricity Consumer Complaint Resolution Platform organised by the commission on Wednesday, in Nasarawa State.
Irukera, who was represented by Alhaji Adamu Abdullahi, the Executive Commissioner, Operations of the Commission, said that non-compliance of DisCos with the regulations of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is a bane in the industry.
Irukera said that non-adherence to NERC’s standards of performance, orders and codes by DisCos was also a problem in the sector.
The FCCPC boss noted that electricity-related issues ranging from poor service delivery in the industry was the highest category of consumer complaints received by the Commission.
He listed some of the complaints to include over-billing, metering, transformer issues, connection, illegal and mass disconnections and poor customer service, among others.
He said, “The FCCPC has been working with NERC, Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency (NEMSA) and other stakeholders to resolve salient consumer issues in the industry
“The council on its part has resolved to henceforth punish offenders who fail to comply with extant rules and regulations in the electricity industry.”
Irukera said that the objective of the programme is to provide an opportunity for consumers and the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) to resolve outstanding and emerging electricity complaints under the supervision of regulators.
The Assistant General Manager, Consumer Education of NERC, Mr Zubair Babatunde, said that buying transformers was not the responsibility of electricity consumers.
He said the issues around the purchase of transformers and other electricity equipment by customers would be resolved before the end of the programme.
He said, “I have heard people complaining about the issue of meters. NERC is working on that even the Federal Government to give people meters.
“All issues around metering, over-billing will be resolved before we leave here.”
Earlier several reports have exposed repeated failures of NERC to make sure that the DisCos deliver efficient electricity services to their customers.
Some of these service failures to consumers include service interruptions, poor voltage, load shedding, inadequate metering, prevalent practices of estimated billing, disconnections and delayed connection of consumers back to supply networks.
