Energy Briefs
ERNEST Mupwaya, managing director, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, AEDC, has said that his company would install 120,000 units of prepaid meters by December to tackle complaints of estimated billing. So far, he said AEDC has installed 88,000 meters.
Mupwaya made this disclosure at a workshop on energy theft for judges within the Federal Capital Territory, FCT. “The issue slowing down metering is funding constraint in the electricity market but we have found a way around it. We have used the vendor financing system to acquire 120,000 meters and if they are deployed and protected from energy theft, we can gain more funding and meter more customers,” he said.
Out of an 800,000 customer base, AEDC has metered 3,800 who are the largest power users and constitutes 50 percent of the revenue collection base, including the ministries, departments, and agencies, MDAs of government. To make meters more available, he said the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has proposed a revival of the Credited Advance Payment for Metering Initiative, CAPMI, where customers buy meters at designated shops around the 11 distribution companies, Discos, and have them installed with a refund.
Mupwaya, who decried the constraints in getting a cost reflective tariff that will ensure power firms operate optimally, said, “The wholesale (generation) tariff has increased by 100 percent since privatization, on the retail side, the increase is only 16 percent so there is already a big deficit.”
He said while the Discos seek cost reflective tariff to enable them make more investments including metering, customers would want to be meter first before they would support any tariff increase. He advised NERC to address the liquidity gap by computing the tariff shortfall into the Discos’ assets so it could reflect in their balance sheet as projected revenue to be cleared through future tariff review when the electricity market stabilizes.
Mupwaya noted that this would enable lenders to see the Discos account as positive and give more funding for investment requirement. He said AEDC has been the first and the highest remitter in the last two years while ensuring that it improves its networks by installing over 200 transformers across Kogi, Abuja, Nasarawa, and Niger states.
– Oct 20, 2017 @ 12:19 GMT |
Tags: Abuja Abuja Electricity Distribution Company AEDC to meter 120 ERNEST Mupwaya Kogi Nasarawa
