Oredola Adeola

The President Bola Tinubu’s through the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI) is making move to embark on bulk procurement of smart meters, the development of indigenous Meter Data Management Systems (MDMS), and the reduction of Aggregated Technical and Commercial (ATC&C) losses to improve the efficiency and reliability of the energy infrastructure in the country.

Eriye Onagoruwa, Team Lead (Power), Office of the Special Adviser, Energy to the President Tinubu made this revelation during the 1st Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) Stakeholders Meeting of the year organised by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in Lagos on Monday.

According to her, there is a huge metering gap that needs to be bridged, and the PMI is looking at bulk procurement of smart meters, developing homegrown systems of MDMS, reduction of ATC&C losses to globally accepted standards.

The Team Lead (Power), Office of the Special Adviser, Energy to the President further emphasised that the government is considering a stakeholder engagement to identify challenges facing the sector, while carrying metering manufacturers along without compromising on cost, quality, and delivery.

Dr. Abdulkadir Shettima, NERC GM, Finance and Management Services during his paper on liberalization of MAP Meter Prices stated that Nigeria would require a combination of different types of prepaid meters in order to close the metering gap.

He also stated that the Meter Assets Providers (MAPs) would equally have to provide a minimum number of 2,000 meters to participate in the market.

Nathan Shatti Rogers, NERC Commissioner, Finance and Management Services, in his remark at the session stated that customers should not pay for meters when the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) do not have meters in stock.

He insisted that if any of the DisCos obtains payment from customers, then the companies must be ready to install meters for them at no additional cost regardless of when you install it.

Dafe Akpeneye, NERC Commissioner, Legal, Licencing and Compliance on his part blamed the DisCos for the lack of communication to their customers waiting to be metered even after ten days of making payment.

According to him, NERC expects DisCos to meter paid customers within 10 days.

He said, “Currently, there is a communication gap with customers. Once they pay, you need to communicate with them and give them an installation date. Instead, the customer pays, hears nothing, & continues to wait in perpetuity.”