The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) on Tuesday issued notices of intention to sanction seven distribution companies over their alleged failure to comply with the Order 197/2020 which placed limits on estimated bills that can be issued by Discos to unmetered customers.
In a statement, the regulator said Benin, Enugu, Eko, Ikeja, Kano, Kaduna, and Port Harcourt Discos have 14 days beginning from June 4 to explain why they should not be penalised over their alleged non-compliance.
In the order which took effect on February 20, 2020, NERC had said it cancelled the Estimated Billing Methodology Regulation as a basis for computing the consumption of unmetered customers by the discos.
The commission said all unmetered R2 and C1 customers should not be invoiced for the consumption of energy beyond the cap stipulated by it.
R2 customers are residential customers who consume more than 50 kilowatt-hour in a month (single phase and three-phase), while C1 customers are small businesses (single and three-phase).
“A consumer of XYZ Disco resident in White Acre under R2 (single phase) tariff class has an energy cap of 78 kilowatt-hour per month and a tariff of N42 per kilowatt-hour. The maximum that XYZ Disco can invoice such a customer is 78kWhr x N24/kWhr = N1,872 per month,” NERC said.
It said all other customers on higher tariff classes must be metered by Discos no later than April 30, 2020, adding customers would not be liable to pay any estimated bill issued if the Discos failed to supply meters.
“The customer shall remain connected to supply without further payment to the Discos until a meter is installed on the premises under the framework work of MAP Regulations or any other financing arrangement approved by the commission,” NERC added.
