*Customers Allege Overbilling, Discos Using Generator For Operation
*Ensuring Better Supply Work In Progress -EKEDC
Lukmon Akintola,
Lagos
Electricity is the backbone of most third world economy reliant on the manufacturing industries. As such, its importance cannot be overstated.
A lack of adequate supply has thus led to a near-collapse of Nigeria’s manufacturing industry, with several major companies including Dunlop Tyres, shutting down operations and relocating to neighbouring countries such as Ghana, Togo, and the Republic of Benin.
This is not to say that there have not been efforts at revamping the sector. Years back, the use of electricity in Nigeria was governed by the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA).
In the heat of NEPA’s disappointments, the organisation which represented Nigeria in the West African power pool garnered unpleasant monikers including ‘Never Expect Power Again’ and ‘Never Expect Power Always’. That was how bad NEPA’s services were.
However, following years of massive investment to better the sector, and with power outage and unreliable services still a recurring decimal, NEPA was rested.
The failure of the organisation announced the arrival of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), a firm many subsequently tagged a mere nomenclature change from the defunct NEPA.
Failed attempts at rebranding the government-owned electricity organisation coupled with billions of Naira down the drain eventually saw the enactment of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005, which led to the unbundling of the national power utility company into six generation companies and 12 distribution outfits to cover the whole of Nigeria. The unbundling also set the pace for the privatisation of the sector, something many thought was going to be the solution to the incessant power problems in the country.
The divestiture of the federal government from PHCN in 2013 and the privitisation of the sector was supposed to mark a new phase in electricity distribution in Nigeria via electricity generating companies such as Afam Power Plc, Egbin Power Plc, Kainji Hydro-Electric Plc, Sapele Power Plc, Ughelli Power Plc, and Shiroro Hydro-Electric Plc.
Local Electric Distribution Companies (LEDC), such as Benin Electricity Distribution Company, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Eko Electricity Distribution Company, Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company, and Kano Electricity Distribution Company were supposed to distribute the energy generated.
Other distribution companies that were to ensure that the country was well covered included Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company, Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company, and Yola Electricity Distribution Company.
Ordinarily, the existence of the aforementioned number of power generation and distribution companies in a country should guarantee better services to consumers. However, there has been very little light in the proverbial tunnel, as lamentations concerning inadequate supply, overbilling, overzealous distribution staff continues nationwide despite continued publications of newly installed and commissioned electrical equipment by distribution companies.
“What we are doing is work in progress. As it is now, we published all we have done in three daily newspapers recently. We have commissioned almost 100 projects, and these are very viable ones. We published these projects in The Punch, Thisday and we also published in Vanguard Newspapers. These are projects across different areas of our franchise towards making electricity supply better for our customers.
“A lot of people do not know that the entire FESTAC sits on an underground cable system that had been done many years ago. That is why when they have faults in such areas, it takes time for us to locate the fault. Recently, we took delivery of a fault locator which we recently brought into the country to reduce the downtime in trying to figure out what is wrong underground. The fault locator is already in place, and we are working round the clock to fix some of those faults. Keep in mind that before we came on board before the investors came on, some of these equipment and cables were already old. So, we are changing fuses, changing transformers, and changing underground cables. These are things that we are doing to make sure that things work out.
“For those who are still experiencing downtimes, we appreciate their concerns and pains. Thankfully, we are also customers like you, so there is no way we can live in a different world. If I live in my franchise area, if electricity is poor, it will get to affect me. You don’t get to see a particular house in any area that they say that man works at EKEDC that is why he has electricity while we don’t. So, we understand what people are going through and we are working on it,” AGM/Head, Media, and Communications at Eko Electricity Distribution Plc, Sulaiman Aledeh, said while explaining to Saturday INDEPENDENT efforts by the EKEDC to better supply to consumer patronising the Discos.
Indeed, there have been several allegations against distribution companies. However, one which remains prominent is the use of generators in their office, while consumers are compelled to pay outrageous bills.
There have been posers as to why consumers are made to pay for unsupplied utility when the distribution companies are aware that there is no supply, hence they resort to using generators, an action which contravenes the rules and regulations of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
A staff of Ikeja Electric Distribution Company, who spoke with Saturday INDEPENDENT under the condition of anonymity revealed that: “The only time we use generators for is our tumper. The tumper is an equipment that we normally carry when we are on the field because no house or community will ever allow you to connect your equipment to their meter. When we want to detect faults from underground cables, we use our generator to power the tumper to determine where the fault is. That is the only time we use generators, we don’t use generators at all at Ikeja Electric. No Discos is allowed to use a generator to power anything in the office. If we are using generator what are we telling our customers?”
However, when our reporter visited the Adekoya Estate, Ogba office of Ikeja Electric Distribution Company, he spotted generators being used to power some equipment.
Asked how Ikeja Electric operates when there is no supply, and he revealed that they wait till they can detect the fault. He went on to state that if there is a system collapse they get information from the transmission who will, in turn, give them a time frame of when supply would be restored. On how they power their electronic payment platforms, he revealed that most customers don’t pay at their offices anymore, as they now use agents across the network.
According to him, the Ikeja Electric doesn’t encourage people to pay at their office anymore except when they are resolving issues.
Informed that there is a POS at the office of Ikeja Electric, he said that it is a self-operated payment platform, adding that they know it would sound funny to tell people to go and pay at an agent’s office which is far from their house when they can easily pay at the office close to their house.
In Lagos State, the duo of Ikeja Electric (IKEDC) and Eko Electric Distribution Company (EKEDC), are at the forefront of power distribution and blames taking for poor services.
Indeed, there have been several complaints about the services of these distribution companies from consumers who continuously lament crazy services and bills they have had to pay for years.
In a chat with Saturday INDEPENDENT, Sadiq Umar, who resides in the Ibeju Lekki axis of Lagos State narrated how his friend who recently moved into his property located at Onosa, Ibeju Lekki opted not to have anything to do with the EKEDC, when urged to register his house for electricity.
According to Umar, the friend had told him that the tales of trouble associated with crazy bills and epileptic supply was too much for him to handle. To escape the burden of such punishment, he opted to go the way of solar energy, installing three panels on his roof. Aided by his generator, Umar said his friend has never regretted his decision.
Oladimeji Akindele narrated how shocked he was to see the EKEDC cash office located at Elemoro in Ibeju Lekki, Local Government being powered by a generator when he visited the place. Speaking on the development with Saturday INDEPENDENT, he wondered why consumers were being made to pay bills while the distribution company had not supplied.
Saturday INDEPENDENT visited the Elemoro office of EKEDC and spotted a generator running the minimal appliances such as payment machines, POS machines, and fan being used at the office. The staff in charge of receiving cash from customers looked embarrassed when asked by our reporter why the office was running on generators, and consumers were being mandated to pay for the supply they did not consume or face disconnection.
Reacting to the use of generators in EKEDC, Aledeh revealed that he is not aware of any generator in his office. He went on to say that if indeed there was a generator at EKEDC’s office then: “The situation tells me that those people are very objective, they have not singled out their facility and say we must give uninterrupted power supply to this place. It means that whatever the people are going through in that locality, they are not immune from it. In places like Lekki, Ajah, Victoria Garden City, Ikoyi, some parts of Surulere and all those areas where some of those projects have been completed, we know that we have good systems running. I am looking at it objectively if someone is running a generator, it is a systemic thing, and that is why I said earlier that when these people came to take over six years ago, it wasn’t like that was when the cables were placed underground in FESTAC. We are talking about cables that were placed underground when FESTAC was being built in 1977. From that time till now, we still have those old cables, but trust me, if you go around those areas you will find out that we are doing all of these things I told you. We bought the fault locator, you can go round and see that they have started using it. These are some of the things that have been happening in those areas.”
These complaints are however neither limited to EKEDC nor Ikeja Electric. A report titled “How AEDC’s Delayed Response To Complaints Frustrates Customers, Robs Them Of Time, Money” credited to ‘The ICIR’, an investigative online platform detailed the suffering of the average consumer in the hands of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company.
According to the report, customer complaints in Abuja borders majorly on inconsistent supply, excessive billing, and a long wait for meter supply.
Enyoanwan, who runs a mini-supermarket directly opposite the AEDC Customer Complaint Unit (CCU), narrated how 13-hours after supply was interrupted it had not been restored in her area. Interestingly, she pays N8, 000 monthly for the estimated consumption of electricity in her stall.
“In this shop, I don’t have any other electrical appliances apart from this fridge, yet I get a bill of N8, 000 monthly. I wish this estimated billing thing can be resolved. I want to apply again for a meter but it’s like wasting my time.”
The ICIR report also detailed how another woman who uses a meter spends between N 1,000 and N2500 monthly on electricity for her saloon. Such is the disparity between a meter-using consumer and an estimated consumer.
In June, at a town hall meeting organised by the Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), in collaboration with the McArthur Foundation with the aim of providing a platform for dialogue and constructive engagement among all stakeholders and to proffer solution to the challenge in the sector brought to fore agonies of consumers in areas of group disconnection, insensitivity and the rudeness of staff of the Discos to consumers.
Consumers at the meeting wasted no time in accusing the officials of the IKEDC of incompetence, insincerity, daylight robbery among other excesses in the presence of right groups and regulators.
Mr. Lawal Babatunde, who resides in Odozi Street, Ojodu, Lagos State narrated how a bill of N 26 million was brought to them after six months of being in darkness, and despite the fact the transformer serving the street and 10 others had been removed months back, wondering how the bill was incurred.
If you think that his case is shocking, Tunde Aina’s experience would shock you more. At the Town Hall meeting, Aina who attended from Ikorodu, Lagos State sought to know how 300 houses in a locality could be given the same estimated bill for five years.
While Town Hall meetings with Discos continue to hold at intervals, the fact that the distribution companies appear to walk away from these meetings without any plan to follow up on the agreed modalities and resolution have raised questions regarding other options for consumers to seek redress over these anomalies.
There have also been questions about what the law says about the excesses of distribution companies.
In 2018, while speaking at a Town Hall meeting on electricity distribution in Bwari, Abuja, the Director-General, Federal Competition and Consumer Protection Commission (FCCPC), Babatunde Irukera, said any electricity distribution company that abuses the right of consumers violates the law.
Irukera, who frowned at group disconnection, a syndrome popular with Discos stated that if electricity consumers who pay for their bills are disconnected alongside those who do not, the rights of those paying would have been violated.
Interestingly, very few prosecutions have been heard since the privatisation of the distribution companies, as marketers freely dare customers telling them to disconnect from the company if they feel that they are not being well serviced.
“I complained about my bills to my marketer who I expected to reason with me because there was hardly supply in my area, I was shocked when she told me that I should disconnect from the Discos if I felt that their services were not good enough. I was shocked because I understood the implication of a consumer disconnecting from the Discos. If we all decide to do that, she would have no job because the company will shut down, but apparently, she lacked the foresight to know that. Oga, you have a generator, you can stay on your generator,” Olanrewaju Shokunbi, an Ibadan, Oyo State-based resident told our reporter.
Interestingly, there are several unpleasant realities staring electricity consumers in the face, as distribution companies have turned them into cash cows. A source in one of the distribution companies who spoke with Saturday INDEPENDENT after being assured of speaking under the condition of anonymity revealed that the distribution grid is bad, and can hardly take the supply of electricity to consumers for more than five hours at a time. According to him, any Discos which supplies for more than five hours at a time risk the possibility of shutting down the grid. According to him, this is why it is difficult for all communities in a town to have light at the same time.
Our source also revealed that unlike in the days of NEPA when it was a government-regulated affair and they still consider the people, the situation is now different, as the individual distribution companies only seek to make a profit. According to him, they would settle at nothing to do this even if it means bleeding the consumer dry, and this is why when there is no supply, your bill is still high.
Explaining that downtimes in energy supply don’t necessarily mean a reduction in bill, Aledeh said: “when light is restored, the first thing people do is that they switched on so many appliances at once. We have started giving enlightenment; we have printed some to make people know the kind of gadgets that they can use that power can be conserved considerably. If you have not had power for sometimes, when the supply is restored, the first thing that people do is that they want to iron, they want to put on the pumping machine, and this affects your consumption. If you ask any expert, they will tell you. What those who already know do is that they put these things on once at a time. Remember these are heavy equipment. It is when they bring the light that someone wants to iron everything he or she has. They forget that the consumption has actually been imputed, but again when you don’t have electricity for long a while, if you have a prepaid meter, once you go back to your meter, you find out that it consumes more. Abdulahi put on the pumping machine, quickly come and do this, and do that. That is what affects a lot of people. Again, my training since joining EKEDC has shown that it is not how big your house is that determines your bill. Somebody living in a one-bedroom apartment may consume more energy than you living in a three-bedroom apartment. There is every tendency that whatever electrical gadget they are using is way more than what you who lives in a three-bedroom apartment is using. For you, there is every tendency that because you are married, you will be using a gas cooker and not a hot plate. The energy that hot plate consumes is way out of the reach of most of these people. So, they have hot plate, electric iron, the same person may even have not the split unit air conditioner, but the window unit air conditioner because he is living in a small apartment, and that takes more energy than the split unit which in today’s modern world are done in a way that its energy saving. That is the problem with a lot of people. They tell you that yours is three-bedroom, and mine is just one bedroom, but get into that apartment and you will be amazed. But that is not a reason for them not to complain. We always do what we call load inventory even though some of these people will hide some of the equipment, and that is why our people come unannounced so that they can also see what they are using. There is a place on the Island where someone was recently arrested. He comes out when it’s dark, and puts his wire somewhere start doing his wielding job. Trust me, that thing that you see that man doing there, he is not tapping my energy if I don’t live in your area, but people in that area will pay for his consumption. You will think that your meter is just moving, no it is already being bypassed.”
On what the EKEDC is doing to correct such a situation, Aledeh said that the whistleblowing platform which they have created is paying off in so many other areas. People who report this kind of situation realise after arresting people involve their energy consumption reduces.
“People steal energy, if you buy energy for three thousand Naira, and you get the value of one thousand Naira, it means something is happening somewhere. Sometimes, you look at it and say maybe it is not reading from your meter, but no someone has taken it. So, the bottom line is that it is not about the size of the house, but about the equipment, the person is using. It is also how this person also operates on this equipment even when there has been no supply in these places over time. And like I said, when you also notice something unusual, you should also report.”
A staff of FCCPC, who would not want her name in print, told Saturday INDEPENDENT the role of the commission in conflicting resolution.
According to her, “Apart from the Town Hall meeting that you know about, the agency addresses issues involving people with complaints. The Town Hall meeting is just for public enlightenment, it is also used to harvest information and know what the issues are. When we address consumer complaints, we just advise, no matter the sector, be it aviation, electricity or whatever. We just advise that you complain to your service provider first. The Town Hall meeting is for the complainant and the disco as the case may be to meet face to face in our presence, and get their issues out there for the discos to resolve them. When this doesn’t happen, they are advised to come to the council. If you go to the discos and you don’t get feedback that you think is fair, then you escalate to the council. We do our investigation to ensure that issues are properly addressed. We resolve complaints in every sector including electricity.”
On the possibility that the council will support consumers who seek redress in court, our source said: “If you independently decide to go to court, we won’t stop you, we would willingly give you our findings that you think can help your case in court. You just request it formally and we give it to you.”
Our source was also informed that in the case where the Discos or company involved fails to implement the redress gotten for the individual by the council, they have internal compliant measures to compel them to comply.
While Discos continue to eradicate supposed teething problems, there might still be hope for a better day for the consumer, as some Discos have upped their game revamping their customer care and social media platforms, while also replacing bad equipment.
When Saturday INDEPENDENT put a call to the EKEDC customer care, Halima, who spoke with our reporter, was efficient in responding to posers directed at her, seeking better ways to serve.
Though the Promised Land as relating to power distribution in Nigeria might still be far away, a ray of light still shines due to the hard work of Discos staff such as EKEDC’S Iyiola, Ezichi, Yinusa Haleemah, Adejuyigbe, Uzor, Ahmed and the many others in several other Discos.
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