Benin DISCO tops metering roll out rating by NERC.

Benin Electricity Distribution Plc. (BEDC) has emerged tops in metering progress performance rating report amongst Distribution Companies (Discos) carried out by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in its second quarter 2016 state of affairs of the electricity supply industry.

The report, which came on the heels of additional 100,000 metering plan for the remainder 2016 announced at the recent power sector stakeholders it hosted in Benin, according to a statement, showed BEDC scoring 65.30 per cent to emerge overall lead performer in metering progress aspect of the report which indicates the percentage of customers metered.

BEDC had demonstrated its consciousness of the metering gaps existing across its various customer classes and had commenced the process to cover the metering gap for existing customers in its area of operations.

The company said in a statement that it has been proactive in installation of meters having installed over 120,500 meters since takeover.

The statement noted that BEDC has taken advantage of both the Industry CAPMI Scheme and own funded meters. More than 90,000 out of these have been installed in 2016 alone.

In its metering rollout plan for the rest of the year, BEDC plans to achieve 100 per cent metering of all Industrial and Maximum demand customers by the end of November 2016; installation of another 100,000 meters for domestic and commercial customers for the remainder of the year; extension of the existing Automated Meter Reading (AMR) capability to 3,000 maximum demand meters, and metering of at least 1,000 distribution transformers in order to adequately account for energy billing to customers.

To achieve the targets set, the company said it has in addition to the existing stock of 32,000 meters; placed order for another 45,000 units for distribution, while it has also recently re-engineered its metering process with a view to eliminating all administrative bottlenecks to reduce processing and installation time.

Kano DISCO losses N108.8m to vandalism

The Kano Electricity Distribution Company said it had lost transformer oil, aluminium conductors, upriser cables and other valuables worth N108.8 million to activities of vandals in three states, Kano, Katsina and Jigawa, from August to date.

 

This is contained in statement signed by the company’s Public Relations Officer, Mr Mohammed Kandi, and issued to newsmen in Kano on Thursday.

 

According to Kandi, the spate of vandalism, energy theft and meter bypass had recently risen extremely in the company’s areas of operation and was becoming unbearable.

 

The appalling development has caused the company huge losses and setbacks within a period of six weeks,” he said.

 

He called on customers of the company, “who bear the brunt” to watch over the installations in their areas and report to the appropriate security agencies any suspicious move for action.

The spokesman quoted KEDCO’s Chief Technical Officer, David Omoloye, as saying “the quantity of vandalised materials include: 46.5 drums of transformer oil, 2, 130 aluminium conductors (150mm2), 4, 500 aluminium conductors (100mm2), 535 and 15 (150mm2&70mm2)”.

 

Other materials, the CTO said, are: “825 XLPE Cable (35mm2), 529 (500mm2) &161 (300mm2) Incomer Cables and 40 Busbar”.

 

Omoloye said that the nefarious acts took place in Sabon Gari, Sharada, Tudun Wada, Dala, Dakata, Dutse, Funtua, Hadejia, Kabuga, Katsina, Kumbotso, Malumfashi, Mariri and Nasarawa.

 

I am appealing to all our esteemed customers in Kano, Katsina and Jigawa states to watch over our installations as their own because when the damage is done they suffer weeks of blackout,”he said.

Suspending New Electricity Tariff Will Lead To Darkness- DISCO

The umbrella body of the 11 electricity distribution companies (discos), Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), yesterday reacted to the directive from the Senate ‘suspending’ the new electricity tariff.

The association warned that suspending the implementation of the tariff would leave the country in continued darkness, with diminished and no future prospects of growth of the economy.

Besides, the discos said the new tariff would guarantee adequate investments in the sector, which would ultimately lead to a reduction in tariff in the future.

Meanwhile, Executive Director, Advocacy and Research of the association, Mr. Sunday Oduntan, in a statement yesterday, also cautioned that the absence of a market priced tariff would create the possibility of performance failure by the operators.

The statement said: “The Senate on Tuesday, February 16, 2016 passed a resolution directing the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to suspend the recently-implemented electricity tariff (MYTO-2015).

“However, implementation of this resolution is not without consequences and the following are a few of them. A market priced tariff is a fundamental requirement under the agreements signed between distribution company (disco) operators in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and the Bureau for Public Enterprises (BPE), raising the concern for sanctity of contract.

“Such a failure will be at a price that the government can ill-afford in these times of die economic challenges.”

Credit: Guardian