185,439 prepaid meters installed in Q4 – NERC
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission says a total of 185,439 meters were installed in the last three months of 2024.
This represents an increase of 0.19 per cent compared to the 185,087 meters installed in 2024/Q3.
According to a report by the commission, the new installations increased the net end-user metering rate across all the DisCos by +0.42pp between 2024/Q3 (46.15 per cent) and 2024/Q4 (46.57 per cent).
“During the quarter, 179,064 meters (96.56 per cent of the total installations) were installed under the Meter Asset Provider framework; 4,076 meters were installed under the Meter Acquisition Fund; 1,924 meters were installed under the Vendor Financed framework; and 374 meters were installed under the DisCo Financed framework,” the report disclosed.
NERC revealed that the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has a total of 1.15 million metered customers out of its 2.64 million customers, as of December 2024. Ikeja Electric has close to one million metered customers out of 1.28 million customers.
Out of its 1.19 million customers, Abuja DisCo had 911,000 customers by the end of last year. The Benin Disco has 1.43 million customers, but 714 were metered.
Yola Disco has 823 customers, out of which 112 have prepaid meters as of December last year.
The commission expects Discos to utilise a combination of all available frameworks contained in the 2021 Meter Asset Provider and National Mass Metering Regulations, as well as the MAF, to close their respective metering gaps.
“As a safeguard for customers against exploitation due to the lack of meters, the commission has continued to issue monthly energy caps for all feeders in each Disco.
“This sets the maximum amount of energy that may be billed to an unmetered customer for the respective month based on gross energy received by the Disco and consumption by metered customers on their respective feeders,” the report stated.
NERC stressed that the most proven methods to improve energy accounting and revenue recovery were accurate customer enumeration and the installation of end-use customer meters.
The commission issued an Order on the operationalisation of Tranche A of the Meter Acquisition Fund in 2024/Q2, directing Discos to utilise the first tranche of disbursement from the MAF scheme to procure and install meters for unmetered Band A customers within their franchise areas.
As of December 2024, Discos were said to have metered more than 4,000 Band A customers through the MAF scheme.
