The Federal Government on Thursday officially handed over the electricity trading point meters to market participants in the nation’s power sector.

The handing over ceremony, which was done simultaneously nationwide, was conducted in Abuja by the Minister of Power, Prof. Chinedu Nebo, at the Transmission Company of Nigeria’s point yard.

According to Nebo, the power generation and distribution companies as well as the Transmission Services Provider should have trading point meters at their various trading interfaces.

He noted that although the electricity Market Operator had been handling and managing the meters before they were handed over, the meters actually belonged to the participants.

He said, “Now, as one of the conditions precedent for the Transitional Electricity Market, the MO has scheduled to formally hand over these meters to the participants. This means from henceforth, the participants will assume responsibility for their trading point meters, while the MO offers the metering regulatory oversight functions.

“The obvious gaps presently being experienced in revenue collection will soon be a thing of the past as the new investors have been enjoined to massively invest in metering both at the up and lower stream of the electricity flow. Whatever your investment in the utility facilities, the output is measured in terms of power and energy, which must be metered before payment is made.

“This means that metering is a very important aspect of the electricity market. We hereby implore the market participants not to do anything that will compromise the integrity of the metering data, as this will affect the accuracy of market settlement.”

On the significance of the exercise, Nebo said the handover of the facilities would instil discipline and transparency in the entire electricity trading market.

Prepaid meters for consumers nko