Hello Nairalanders and Nigerians, please let’s talk about the N500 (Five Hundred Naira) monthly fixed charge being collected by PHCN before one could recharge the prepaid card.

MY story:
I was at the PHCN office last week to recharge my prepaid meter card. I planned to buy N4,000 worth of units. I handed the attendant my card and the N4,000 which is the amount for the units I wanted to buy. The attendant carried out the transaction and handed the card and the receipt/invoice back to me.

However, when I scrutinized the receipt I was surprised to realize that only N500 worth of power units was allocated while the remaining N3,500 was taken as fixed charge. When I asked for explanation from the attendant, here is what she said:

“You have not recharged your card for the last 7 months and you are supposed to pay N500 every month if you are using prepaid meter”

I was infuriated by this and I asked her to reverse the transaction that I didn’t know about that and was not prepared to pay any fixed charge let alone paying N3,500 and she should have told me before completing the transaction, but she said there’s nothing she could do about it and that she couldn’t reverse the transaction.

Previous experience:
I recall that I had bought N5,000 worth of prepaid units around July last year and between that time and now power supply has been very epileptic in my area. In fact for over two months from October to December last year we did not have power supply. The PHCN guys kept saying that the Feeder (whatever that means) that supplied power to our area was faulty. It was only this January the problem was fixed.

From some of my past receipts here are the tariff rates (It has been increased from N5.90 to N 12.50):
May 2011: N5.90; September 2011: N7.30; February 2012: N12.50

Questions:
1) Why must we pay N500 every month as fixed charge?

2) Why must we pay fixed charge at all whether we have light or not?

3) Why must we the masses continue to subsidize inefficiency?

4) What is the essence of charging fixed amount when energy tariff has been increase about 3 times in the last 2 years?

5) Why must government always come up with policies to enrich the cabals and impoverish the masses?

I have been using prepaid meter for over 4 years now and the meter was bought for over N25,000.00 (Twenty Five Thousand Naira) then. Before now they introduced Meter Maintenance Charge and were collecting N204 monthly as meter maintenance fee. Throughout this period they never carried out any maintenance on my meter. When people complained and complained, PHCN eventually agreed to remove it and now through the back door they have introduced fixed charge and more than doubled the amount.

This is not fair on the masses and I am not happy about it. Please lets talk about this.

It just shows that you have not recharged in 7 months and unless you have been away for that period they need to investigate your meter but they dont tend to connect the dots or you will pay 100k to be reconnected if you have been bypassing electricity.

SUCCEED!:

Hello Nairalanders and Nigerians, please let’s talk about the N500 (Five Hundred Naira) monthly fixed charge being collected by PHCN before one could recharge the prepaid card.

MY story:
I was at the PHCN office last week to recharge my prepaid meter card. I planned to buy N4,000 worth of units. I handed the attendant my card and the N4,000 which is the amount for the units I wanted to buy. The attendant carried out the transaction and handed the card and the receipt/invoice back to me.

However, when I scrutinized the receipt I was surprised to realize that only N500 worth of power units was allocated while the remaining N3,500 was taken as fixed charge. When I asked for explanation from the attendant, here is what she said:

“You have not recharged your card for the last 7 months and you are supposed to pay N500 every month if you are using prepaid meter”

I was infuriated by this and I asked her to reverse the transaction that I didn’t know about that and was not prepared to pay any fixed charge let alone paying N3,500 and she should have told me before completing the transaction, but she said there’s nothing she could do about it and that she couldn’t reverse the transaction.

Previous experience:
I recall that I had bought N5,000 worth of prepaid units around July last year and between that time and now power supply has been very epileptic in my area. In fact for over two months from October to December last year we did not have power supply. The PHCN guys kept saying that the Feeder (whatever that means) that supplied power to our area was faulty. It was only this January the problem was fixed.

From some of my past receipts here are the tariff rates (It has been increased from N5.90 to N 12.50):
May 2011: N5.90; September 2011: N7.30; February 2012: N12.50

Questions:
1) Why must we pay N500 every month as fixed charge?

2) Why must we pay fixed charge at all whether we have light or not?

3) Why must we the masses continue to subsidize inefficiency?

4) What is the essence of charging fixed amount when energy tariff has been increase about 3 times in the last 2 years?

5) Why must government always come up with policies to enrich the cabals and impoverish the masses?

I have been using prepaid meter for over 4 years now and the meter was bought for over N25,000.00 (Twenty Five Thousand Naira) then. Before now they introduced Meter Maintenance Charge and were collecting N204 monthly as meter maintenance fee. Throughout this period they never carried out any maintenance on my meter. When people complained and complained, PHCN eventually agreed to remove it and now through the back door they have introduced fixed charge and more than doubled the amount.

This is not fair on the masses and I am not happy about it. Please lets talk about this.

But how come you didn't recharge for 7months? Its either you bypassed your meter or you travelled for the period?

As for the meter maintenance fee, the PHCN attendant should have explained the situation in details to you. The electricity tarrif rate is for energy consumed, ie to settle the power generation companies. But the meter maintenance fee, which is actually called fix charges is the money for maintenance of the facilities that transports the power from generation company to your house. This includes the local transformers, cables, feeders, sub stations, transmission lines, etc. When your transformer breaks down, it is from the N500 fixed charge contributed by every consumer that the transformer is replaced. Ditto other distribution and transmission facilities across the country.

Like I said earlier, the tarrif rate (N12.5 per kwhr) is for energy CONSUMED by you, ie electricity that comes from power generation companies to your house

Sincere 9gerian:
But how come you didn't recharge for 7months? Its either you bypassed your meter or you travelled for the period?

As for the meter maintenance fee, the PHCN attendant should have explained the situation in details to you. The electricity tarrif rate is for energy consumed, ie to settle the power generation companies. But the meter maintenance fee, which is actually called fix charges is the money for maintenance of the facilities that transports the power from generation company to your house. This includes the local transformers, cables, feeders, sub stations, transmission lines, etc. When your transformer breaks down, it is from the N500 fixed charge contributed by every consumer that the transformer is replaced. Ditto other distribution and transmission facilities across the country.

Like I said earlier, the tarrif rate (N12.5 per kwhr) is for energy CONSUMED by you, ie electricity that comes from power generation companies to your house

You make me laugh like you are not a Nigerian or do you live in one of the lucky areas. Transformer was sourced by the residents association and them collect 100k. Poles and wires were sourced by individual landlords and they collected 36k before I could connect so why PHCN they charge fixed charge for again?