The management of Ikeja Electric Plc was at the headquarters of Vintage Press Limited, publisher of The Nation newspapers, on a visit. The power distribution company’s Managing Director, Mr Abiodun Ajifowobaje, during the visit, spoke on a wide range of issues in the power sector and the menace of pipeline vandalism. EMEKA UGWUANYI and AKINOLA AJIBADE were there.
What is your company doing to address the meter problems in your network?
The challenges are many. However, the two major problems, which power firms are experiencing, are scarcity of meters and failure to meter all the consumers. At Ikeja Electric, we identified the problems immediately; the current owners took over the unbundled assets of the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) in November 2013. Since then we have been trying to proffer solutions to the problems in order to satisfy our teeming customers. We are doing this, in line with our goal of becoming a customer-centric or focused institution. In order to address the meter problems, we have conducted a pilot scheme with 2,000 customers. The customers were randomly selected from the six business units in the company – Abule-Egba, Akowonjo, Ikeja, Ikorodu, Oshodi and Shomolu. The two months pilot scheme ended in August and the aim was to determine how quickly the overall implementation of our metering programme would be, and also discover the loopholes and at the same time address them.
We have invested $160 million on meters to meet the needs of 300,000 customers that we are targeting for the metering programme. In many areas or localities, we have introduced an idea known as ‘Energy Accountability’ to make customers accountable for the units of energy they consume, and we are checking sharp practices such as tampering or bypassing of meters, among others. By and large, we have gone far in addressing the problems outlined above and that will address the problem of estimated billing.
Why is it that many consumers are yet to get meters, in spite of the efforts you have made to address the problems?
Solving problems associated with manufacturing and provision of meters is not one day job. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) knows this, hence its decision to give the 11 Power Distribution Companies (DISCOs) a five-year mandate to supply meters to their teeming customers. The five year covers 2013-2018, when we consider the fact that DISCOs took over in 2013. All the power distribution companies are required to meet the metering needs of their customers within the stipulated period. We are working within the timeframe given by NERC. In fact, Ikeja Electric has shortened the five years to three years in order to provide meters to its customers early enough, and avert a situation where they would continue to pay estimated bills. And to make good our promise to provide meters to our customers, we have concluded plans to do a massive roll out this September.
How prepared are you to meet the meter demand of your customers in the next three years?
We hope to supply meters to customers on our database within that period. We have done our home work well in this regard, and we would not disappoint our teeming customers, who are waiting patiently for us to solve their metering problems. We have promised to satisfy our customers by attending promptly to issues they brought to us. We would ensure that we do whatever they request for. That is if their requests are within our powers. We want our customers to be free with us, ask us what they need, and we would attend to them. Those needs we can meet immediately, we would not hesitate to give them. Those ones that we cannot meet, we would explain to them why it would not be possible for us to meet them. For instance, if a customer, who is looking for a meter, says he cannot exercise patience and wants to jump the queue, we would accommodate him or her. Since we have promised to be customer-centric, we would try as much as possible to respond to the needs of our customers, but such customer will pay for the meter and the cost gradually deducted from his/her bills.
What are the sanctions for customers who tampered or bypassed meters?
There are different sanctions for meter tampering offenders. The first sanction is that customers who tampered with meters will pay a fine of N50,000 into designated financial institutions. The second sanction is jail term. People found bypassing their meters would be arrested and handed over to the Police for prosecution. We are working with the law enforcement agencies such as the Police and the Nigerian Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) to arrest, prosecute and charge those who tamper with meters to court. We believe that when meter bypassing offenders are jailed, they would serve as deterrent to others that want to commit the crime.
Before applying sanctions, has your organisation warned customers on tampering with their meters?
We have employed different methods in order to stop people from tampering with meters. The methods include organising forums, and sending our officials to enlighten consumers on how to use their meters (prepaid or analog), credit their bills in the event that they are using prepaid meters, among carrying out other activities.
What are the modalities for implementing the idea known as Energy Accountability?
Ikeja Electric has deployed what it referred to as AMR Infrastructure in order to ensure that customers are responsible for the units of energy they consume. Through this, every operation of the meters installed in the homes and offices of our customers is recorded and known to the management of Ikeja Electric. For instance, if customer A bypassed his meter, there would be a signal to that effect, and the company would know immediately. Also, if a customer has not paid his bills by way of crediting his meter, the management would know. We carried out a pilot study to detect customers, who bypassed their meters. The study revealed that as early as 6.00 am, 10 customers have tampered with their meters because we saw everything that happened on the meters in the system installed in our office. This is a futuristic metering system introduced to check some fraudulent practices. More worrisome is the fact that people, especially Nigerians are fond of disobeying laws made to check fraudulent practices.
Beyond detecting fraudulent customers, what other things is Energy Accountability going to achieve?
By energy accountability, we want to make sure that consumers pay for every unit of energy they consume. We are not just giving power or electricity; we want to make sure that consumers pay for every second of energy consumed. The Global Satellite Mobile (GSM) operators such as MTN, Airtel, Glo and Etisalat charge subscribers every second they make calls with their phones. That is what we want to happen in the power sector. We want to be fair to our customers, while at the same time our customers should be fair to us. It is a case of consumers using our power and paying us our money.
How much do distribution companies (DISCOs) charge for prepaid meters?
The DISCOs are not required to charge any fees before giving meters out to consumers. All the meters are free. We are not taking a kobo from anybody. If any of our officials goes out to demand money from consumers, who want meters, that person is a thief. We say the meter is free because any money you pay to obtain a meter, we would pay you back over a period of time, usually 30 months. A single phase meter costs N30,000, while a double-phase meter costs N50,000. If a customer bought a single-phase meter at the rate of N30,000, what we do is that we deduct 38 per cent of N30,000 for two and half years (30 months) to cover his fixed charge. What this implies, is that such a customer would not be paying fixed charge for 30 months.
‘The DISCOs are not required to charge any fees before giving meters out to consumers. All the meters are free. We are not taking a kobo from anybody. If any of our officials goes out to demand money from consumers, who want meters, that person is a thief. We say the meter is free because any money you pay to obtain a meter, we would pay you back over a period of time, usually 30 months’
What is the timeframe for giving out meters to applicants or consumers?
We only give out meters to consumers whose areas or localities have been metered by our company, based on the Advanced Metering System introduced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). For instance, we at Ikeja Electric would finish our metering system in 2017. If a customer wants his meter in 2017, it shows that the customer would continue to get estimated bill.
Why has Nigeria not been able to improve power supply, using renewable energy sources such as solar, wind, coal and biomass?
The country depends on two traditional sources of generating power, the gas power plant or turbines and hydro or water. While hydro plant is the cheapest means of generating electricity worldwide because water, which is the major ingredient, required to generate the power is free, the gas powered plant is not. Findings have shown that the cost of setting up three hydro plants would provide one turbine. Altogether, the two are veritable means of generating electricity since they can provide thousands of electricity megawatts (Mw) needed to move the economy forward. They function optimally by generating the quantum of electricity megawatts that would bring the desired socio-economic growth provided there is no infrastructural gap.
Should the Federal Government not be thinking of generating power through renewable sources since gas and hydro plants have not been able to generate enough power due to pipeline vandals?
It is not proper for the government to use renewable energy as the major means of generating electricity, when one considers the fact that they produce minimum megawatts of electricity. Besides, each of the renewable energy sources has its own drawbacks. For instance, one needs acres of land to generate one megawatt of electricity, through solar. Also, when a man installs solar power in his house, he cannot use it to power his electrical equipment such as fridge, freezers, and air-conditioners. Based on this, it is not economical to use solar energy.
Is the same thing applicable to other renewable energy sources?
Yes, all the sources of renewable energy have one problem or the other. For instance, wind generates few megawatts of electricity, aside the fact that it not predictable. Wind is a natural product, and as such, it is unpredictable. Wind can provide electricity, let say for five hours, and refused to work in the next two or three hours. The moment the wind stops, this means that it would take some time before one can access power. Even, Japan that has the biggest wind power cannot generate huge volume of power from wind. The biggest transformer installed for wind energy is about 20 KVA, and how much electricity would that provide for a country like Nigeria with 170million population? This is a question we must ask ourselves. Like any other natural product, wind is unpredictable. I can install wind energy here, and in the next five to six hours, the light would stop due to weather.
But institutions, such as the Redeemed Christian Church of God (RCCG) and Katsina State Government, use wind to power part of their areas.
Cuts in: That is not true. I have been to the Redemption Camp in Mowe, Ogun State and I can tell you authoritatively that 75 per cent of the electricity used in the Camp is from the gas powered plant. Under the rural electrification scheme, introduced by the Federal Government, in order to light the rural areas, wind equipment were installed in Katsina State because the state enjoys wind a lot. But the equipment stops working the wind stops, and that is the end of accessing electricity through that means. The issue of using wind energy for 10 hours, 20hours is not possible.
What about using coal and biomass to generate power?
To produce one or two megawatts of power from biomass, you need to pack all the wastes in Lagos to get that figure. And that may take you three months or more to do. What I would use to produce one megawatt of power from biomass would produce 10 megawatts of hydro or gas power. The same thing is applicable to coal. The cost of building one or two coal power plants can get you one big gas plant. When you consider all these, you realise that the renewable energy sources are not economical, besides the fact that they provide small quantum of electricity megawatts that is barely enough to meet the energy demands of a country like Nigeria.
How come South Africa generates over 40,000 megawatts of electricity, relying on coal to generate the bulk of the power it consumes?
Truly, over 60 per cent of power used in South Africa is from Coal. The country started generating electricity from Coal when it was cheaper and easier to do. I’m talking about decades ago, precisely in the 50s. But it is not possible now. Cost of generating power through Coal has gone up considerably. If you go to South Africa now and you tell them to set up a Coal power plant, the first question they would ask you is whether you are crazy or not. They would tell you that it is not economical to generate electricity through Coal, despite the fact that they have Coal in abundance. It would be better if we concentrate on how to improve electricity generation through hydro and gas, than generating power from renewable energy sources, that we do not have the required expertise for.
What is your take on the differential costs of gas?
This is a free economy where you sell your product to the customer who can give you the right value. For instance, if you have gas to sell and the law says that I s must sell to customer A at $50 per cubic feet and customer B at $46 per cubic feet. Let’s say Customer B is not ready to pay even if I bring the price down from $46 to $10, while Customer A paid me for 12 months at a go, is there anything wrong in selling to such a customer. That is exactly what is happening in the sector.
What is the cause of pipeline vandalism?
I do not know exactly the causes of pipeline vandalism. In the olden days, gas was flowing well and the turbines were accessing it for generation. Then power was stable. During that period, when Electricity Company switches off power, it would restore power few minutes after. That is why you can hear children and adults shout ‘Up NEPA’ the moment there is light. But today gas is no longer flowing, making you and me wanting to find out the cause. Some people alleged that companies that were importing generators into Nigeria were given vandals money to break gas pipelines. Others said the people residing in the riverine areas were behind the criminal activity. I do not know what causes pipeline vandalism. But what I know is that without smoke, there would be no fire. I do not know what people would gain from breaking gas pipeline because gas is air. If it is crude pipeline, I would say they can sell it and make money from it.
