The Managing Director, Nigeria Electricity Management Service (NEMSA), Engr. Peter Ewesor have explained why some electricity meters were rejecting low voltage.
Ewesor, who is the Chief Electrical Inspector of the Federation, said that the meters were programmed to reject low current in order to avoid damage to the appliances the current was supposed to power.
Speaking on Service and Safety Half Hour on Radio Nigeria monitored by National Daily he noted that such meters were functioning in accordance with their programming.
The meters, he said, were set to trip off automatically when the power supply was no longer good for consumption.
He described the measure as a safely device that the manufacturers adopted to secure the lives and property.
His words: “What is happening is the proper thing and it shows that the meter is working effectively to cut you off when the power supply is no longer good enough. When the voltage is very low, you are actually go to have more current and then you meter cannot support it. It is not even able to drive the load and service in your house. So the meter has been made such that if the voltage goes below a certain level, rather than continue to create heat, and cause problem in your applicances, it will cut you off. It is a safety device.”
A caller asked what could be responsible for his power outage whenever there was low voltage, the NEMSA boss said that the “meters are actually made and preset in a manner that they that they will take care of any issue that could affect either proper consumption in terms of billing or in terms of safety.
“If the voltage becomes so low, the meter is manufactured and set to a minimum level to which it can no longer read. So, definitely it has to go off so that it makes sure that you are not using bad power and you are paying for it.”
He warned power consumers not to tamper with their meters when they reject low Voltage, adding that “you should not touch the meter unless you know how to do it and you are authorized to do so because you could get yourself electrocuted.”
He said that in order to prevent the consumers from tempering with the meters, the electricity distribution companies could change the meter or its code.
According to him, “once the seal there is tampered, they (DisCos) will know that it has been tampered.”