Power
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The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, ranks Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company the best among 11 others in the country
| By Anayo Ezugwu | Sep 19, 2016 @ 01:00 GMT |
DESPITE slamming multi-million naira fines on Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, IBEDC, for alleged failure to respond appropriately to customer complaints, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has ranked the company first among all the 11 distribution companies in the country. According to the NERC’s bench marking and ranking of Discos for the second quarter of 2016, Ibadan Disco moved from the 4th position it occupied in the first quarter of 2016 to the number one position.
The NERC made this known at its monthly sectoral meeting held at Maiduguri, Borno State, between Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing and the stakeholders in the power sector. The rankings are based on the following parameters – average technical and collection, ATC&C, losses reduction, collection efficiency, metering progress, HV faults clearance Index and reporting compliance.
Commenting on this laudable feat, John Donnachie, managing director, IBEDC, attributed the improved performance to the commitment and pursuance of the company’s five-pronged 2016 strategic business initiatives to improve overall service delivery and customer experience to its esteemed customers.
“Since inception and specifically this year, we have made giant strides in upgrading our network infrastructure, revamping our billing system, investing heavily in the capital development of our human resource, massive franchise wide metering and delivery of superior customer service,” he said.
Donnachie also stated that IBEDC will not rest on its oars, as this new position has undoubtedly spurred and invigorated the entire workforce to become more committed and continuously put in their utmost to ensure, superior and efficient service delivery to customers in line with the company’s vision to be the best electricity distribution company in the country.
Similarly, John Ayodele, deputy managing director of the company, said IBEDC was seeking new and effective ways to continually deliver on its customer satisfaction promise: to distribute power and change the lives of its valued customers by ensuring that the allocated power supply is adequately rationed so that customers get value for paying their bills whilst we continue to pursue our metering exercise.
He also appealed to customers to pay their bills promptly; report illegal activities in their communities to enable the company serve them better.
The NERC had on August 11, slammed N21.2 million fine on Ibadan Disco for its refusal to implement the decisions of the NERC’s forum office or treat electricity customer complaints referred to it by the commission. The forum office is the second level in the commission’s redress mechanism where complaints from electricity consumers that are not resolved at the customer care unit of the electricity distribution companies are referred for settlement.
NERC, in its Directive 156 stated that following the failure of the IBEDC to comply with the request and directive, the commission issued a notice to commence enforcement to the IBEDC on June 9, 2016 to show cause within 10 days why enforcement action should not be taken against it, adding that this was on four grounds of misdemeanour.
It said the company was found to have violated all the four grounds by not complying with most of the NERC forum decisions in respect of installation of electricity transformers and energising communities. The commission said the excuse, which the IBEDC gave for not complying with the directive of the forum office, was unavailability of funds and the capital intensive nature of such projects.
“The IBEDC also failed to comply with the timeline within which to implement the directives of the NERC forum as well as the reporting compliance obligation as stipulated in the CCHSP Regulation 2006,” the commission stated.
The regulator added that all sanctions against the Disco would start counting from February 23, 2015 when the first directive was given by the NERC forum office till August 5, 2016 when its Directive 156 was signed by Anthony Akah, acting chairman of the commission, and Olufunke Dinneh, general manager, legal, licensing and enforcement of the commission. It added that the total fine of N21.2 million must be paid within two weeks starting from August 5, 2016, after which the fine would attract five per cent interest daily until it was paid.
“The fines imposed notwithstanding, the IBEDC shall comply with all the directives of the NERC forum and shall communicate to the commission its electricity transformer implementation roll out plan and the date of the commencement within two weeks from August 5, 2016.”
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