Don’t pay estimated bills, NERC tells electricity consumers

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has directed electricity consumers not provided with prepaid meters to stop paying for electric bills presented by Distribution Companies (DISCOs) on the basis of estimated billing methodology.

The commission also ordered the DISCOs not to disconnect any such customer that refuses to pay the bills and further advised such customers to report to the commission if disconnected.

NERC gave the directive recently in a statement on its website and said it was part of its sanctioning of defaulting DISCOs who failed to provide meters for its customers before the March 1 deadline.

In line with its mandate of protecting the rights of customers, NERC had in June 2016 after consultation with the operators, directed DISCOs to conclude metering of all customers before November 30, 2016.
According to NERC, the commission at the expiration of that notice, granted three months moratorium which expired on March 1, to enable the DISCOs effectively execute the metering deployment plan for MD customers.

According to the statement, the sanction was sequel to the expiration of the initial directives by NERC and the moratorium period given to DISCOs to meter consumers.

Meanwhile, the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said it has increased the daily average national gas supply to gas power plants to 689mmscfd or the equivalent to power generation of 3,056mw

NNPC Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, Mr. Ndu Ughamadu disclosed this in a statement.

He said that the March 2017 edition of the monthly Financial and Operations Report of the Corporation, released yesterday in Abuja, said the average national daily gas production for the period stood at an impressive 226.918 billion cubic feet, bcf, which translates to over 7.319 million standard cubic feet of gas per day, mmscfd.

The March 2017 figure is an improvement on the previous month’s record which stood at 582 mmscfd. The supply is also over 29 percent higher than the corresponding supply record for March 2016.