The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has repealed estimated billing by the 11 electricity distribution companies, insisted that all unmetered consumers must be metered.

In an order titled Order on the capping of estimated bills in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) released on Monday, NERC said estimated Billing Methodology Regulation is repealed and shall cease to have effect as a basis for computing the consumption of unmetered customers in NESI.

NERC said DisCos must ensure that all customers on tariff class A1 (Special customers) in their Franchise areas are properly identified and metered by 30 April 2020 while all unmetered R2 (Residential) and C 1 (Commercial) customers should not be invoiced for the consumption of energy beyond the cap stipulated Order.

NERC said: “A customer of XYZ DisCo resident in White Acre under R2 (single phase) tariff class has an energy cap of 78kWhr per month and a tariff of NGN24/kWhr. The maximum that XYZ DisCo can invoice such a customer is 78lcWhr x NGN24/lcWhr - NGNl,872.00 per month. Customers are to note that energy consumed for the purpose of estimated billing is capped during the transitional period till they are metered but the actual amount payable shall vary in the event of any approved tariff reviews affecting their customer class.

“All R 1 customers, who by definition consume no more than 50kWhr of energy per month, shall continue to be billed at NGN4/kWhr and a maximum of NGN200 per month unless amended by an Order of the Commission. The energy cap prescribed by the Commission shall only apply to R2 and C 1 customers. All other customers on higher tariff classes must be metered by DisCos no later than 30 April 2020, failing which these customers are not liable to pay any estimated bill issued by the DisCo. Any customer on

such higher tariff classes not metered beyond 30 April 2020 shall remain connected to supply without further payment to the DisCo, until a meter is installed on the premises under the framework of MAP Regulations or any other financing arrangement approved by the Commission.

NERC however, warned electricity consumers not to reject meters saying that any customer that rejects the installation of a meter on their premises by a DisCo shall not be entitled to supply and MUST BE DISCONNECTED by the DisCo, and shall only be reconnected to the network with the installation of a meter.

NERC lamented that DisCos are required to meter customers in accordance with requisite

standards of performance. The legacy situation at acquisition of majority stake in the distribution assets from government was that the majority of customers were unmetered and there has been little change in the situation as the deployment of meters by DisCos has been outpaced by the growth in customer numbers in NESI.

“Data received from the ongoing customer enumeration exercise indicates that the customer population has grown from 5million in 2012 to over 10 million as at December 2019 with about 52% of the population being invoiced on the basis of estimated billing.

It noted that the need for the introduction of a standard methodology of estimated billing in NESI became inevitable during the transitional period required to close the metering gap and the Estimated Billing Methodology Regulation was introduced as a means of ensuring that customers were not issued arbitrary bills that were unrelated to actual consumption or any other metric for estimating their energy consumption.

Unfortunately, NERC stated, the inadequacy of accurate data required for the estimation of consumption of unmetered consumers produced the most significant customer complaints with non-provision of meters and unrealistic billing of unmetered customers accounting For over 65% of complaints lodged at customer care centers of DisCos, disputes Filed at Forum Offices and this, it said has significantly affect the level of customer dissatisfaction and have also adversely impacted on the market

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The toothless nerc again?

It's now that I'm using prepaid I know the reason NEPA refused to supply prepaid and prefer estimated billing..... My prepaid was installed on Feb 7th with 100 units.......I'm in 3rd week now meanwhile I'm using fridge,hot plate and iron but guess what......when I check this morning I'm still having 59 units.

Definitely it'll serve me like 3 more weeks plus.

Estimated billing is a scam.

Estimated billing is the cause of our electricity problem from generation to distribution to marketing. If not fixed, the problem will persist