The billing system of the electricity distribution companies of the unbundled Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) has gone arwy and customers are complaining, writes EMEKA UGWUANYI.
Customers of the electricity distribution companies unbundled from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) are angry over what they described as unreasonable bills from the utility provider.
The customers, particularly those who don’t use prepaid meters, are paying through their noses even when the expected uninterrupted power supply promised by the government remains a dream.
Following complaints from the customers, our correspondent visited some undertakings and business units of the distribution companies in Lagos to ascertain the cause of the recent exorbitant bills. It was discovered that customers affected in the high billing include those in Residential One and Two (R1&2) category of MYTO 11 (Multi-Year-Tariff-Order), who according to the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act, are not only expected to pay low tariff, but also be protected from undue high tariff in order to enable them have access to power supply.
At the undertaking and business unit levels, half of the customers acc osted came with complaints of high billings. Some of the bills were as high as N30,000 for households of two and three bedroom flats, who don’t even use air-conditioners in their houses.
Some of the customers said the high billing started from September. For instance, Ajibola Akande who lives within the network of Festac Business Unit said in September he was billed N14,000, in October, over N18,000 and in November, ove N27,000. Also a customer under the Shomolu Buisness Unit, Mr. Julius Ogbonna said he got N14,000 in October and N29,000 in November. He said when he complained, he was asked to go and pay first so they (PHCN) would find a way of resolving future bills.
The implication of this outrageous billing is that it might make customers lose confidence and trust in the power sector reform and promises of the government in making power affordable by low income earners, he added.
Some of the officials of the Buisness Units who spoke in confidence to The Nation, said the marketers create a lot of problems for them by not reading the meters. They noted that even if customers have faulty meters or their meters are inaccessible, they (marketers) should endeavour and properly determine the consumption level of a customer before estimating his bill.
“When we see customers mill around here, we don’t feel good because what we preach and expect to attain is commendable service delivery and customer satisfaction but we are working on resolving this issue of crazy billing but you know this cannot be achieved overnight,” they said.
At the Quarterly Power Summit in Lagos organised by the Power Ministry, the Chief Executive Officer, Benin Electricity Distribution Company Effiong Umoren also highlighted on the issue of tariff. He said that it is very imperative to get the issue tariff right in order to get the privatisation and reform aspirations right.
In his paper entitled: Market performance under the implementation of MYTO 11, prospects and challenges: Operator’s perspectives,’ he noted that the tariff structure needs to be slightly adjusted.
He said: “Unless we are banking on periodical government bailout, the tariff structure is one single component in the power equation that decides the survival or otherwise of the electricity supply chain, we must get it right.”
He identified major features of MYTO 11 as increase in energy and fixed charges across the various tariff class, abolished payment for meters and connection fees by customers, abolished meter maintenance fees effective from December 2011, disallowed payment of statutory charges for maximum demand (MD) customers: inspection and survey fees, testing fees, metering and commissioning fees, reduced tariff classes from 19 to 14, merger of all the low energy users in each class: R, C, D, and A and collapse of all charges in each category into only two components: Fixed charge and Energy charge and removal of KVA component from MD bills.
He also noted the major benefits of MYTO 11, which he said discourages fraudulent classification of customers from R3 to R2 by under declaration of load demand and reduction in energy theft. He said that due to free meters, customers stealing energy are now coming out for free meters and regularisation of supply status.
On challenges of MYTO 11, he identified among others, the unrealistically high fixed charge of N139,466 for a wide segment of D2 customers: small scale industrial customer, saw millers, aluminium and steel product makers, confectionary manufacturers adding that on high fixed charge of N25,018 on R3, “we have some instances where fixed charge is up to three times the energy charge; particularly on “seasonal and weekend” residential houses.
He said that kva as a component of a tariff encourages more efficient machinery, thus improving system voltage profile noting that its abolition in MYTO II will increase ‘power factor indiscipline’ putting avoidable burden on terminal equipments. Power factor efficiency requires additional investment on the part of customer. There is no more incentives for this investment, he added.
To discourage energy theft or illegal connection, the stakeholders said the tariff structure should be properly addressed and has to start from elimination of crazy billing.
