Metering: 81,084 meters installed in Q4, 2021—NERC

…As DisCos receive 222,639 complaints in Q4

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), said 81,084 meters was installed in the fourth quarter 2021 compared to the 288,154 meters installed in Q3, 2021. This even Disco’s received a total of 222,639 complaints from consumers in Quarter 4 of 2021.

This is contained in the NERC Fourth Quarter Report 2021 released late on last week.

The report said that the reduction in the number of meter installations in Q4 was largely driven by the winding down of the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) phase zero (0).

“This major reduction was driven by the winding down of the NMMP which has been the key driver of the significant progress recorded in consumer metering all through 2021.

“Out of the 81,084 meters installed for end users in Q4, 70,676 representing 87.16 per cent were metered under the NMMP scheme.

“While only 10,408 representing 12.84 per cent customers were metered under the Meter Assert Provider intervention (MAP),” it said.

The report said that as a safeguard against overbilling of unmetered customers via estimation, the commission has set maximum limits to the amount of energy caps in Kilo Watts per hour (kWh) that may be billed to unmetered customers.

The cap for each customer is set based on the customer category, consumption of metered customers on the same feeder and the customer’s tariff band.

The report said that in the quarter under review, the commission certified 46 Meter Service Providers (MSPs) following the satisfactory evaluation of their applications.

“The list of the certified MSPs, comprises 17 meter installer companies, 15 meter manufacturers, two meter vendors seven and one meter importers,’’ the report said.

The report said that the 222,639 complaints represented 9.91 per cent less of the 24,479 of those received in Q3, 2021.

It said in total, the DisCos resolved 212,382 complaints corresponding to a 95.39 per cent resolution rate.

“Metering, billing, and service interruption were the prevalent sources of customer complaints, accounting for 58.83 per cent of the total complaints during the quarter.