Ejiofor Alike
The Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) has pledged to ensure a just and fair assessment of customers’ consumption in estimating electricity bills, while also restating its commitment to its meter roll-out and network intensification programme.
Giving this commitment was the company’s Chief Operations Officer, Mr. Sam Nwaire during a recent town hall meeting with customers of the company under Lekki District.
Nwaire who stood in for the Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Company, Mr. Oladele Amoda , said the meter roll-out plan was on course and expressed optimism that all unmetered customers of the company would be reached within the stipulated time.
He said since the cost involved was so huge, it was not possible for all customers to be metered at the same time.
He then appealed to those yet to be reached in the meter roll-out plan to exercise some patience as no customer would be left out in the end.
Responding to a complaint by one of the participants at the town hall meeting that the use of estimated billing for unmetered customers does not correspond with the volume of energy supplied, Nwaire said the company has an established billing methodology approved by the industry regulator for billing unmetered customers.
This, he said, was usually based on a number of factors which include the customer’s consumption pattern over time and availability of power supply within the particular month for which the customer was billed.
Speaking further, the EKDC Chief disclosed that in order to ensure a just and fair assessment of customers’ consumption, the company has embarked on an energy audit and customer enumeration programme aimed at ascertaining true energy consumption of all customers with or without meters. The programme, he said, would also lead to the detection of those that have been engaging in energy theft in one way or the other.
He then appealed to all customers of the company to co-operate with the company for the success of the programme as it would be of mutual benefit to both the customers and the company as well.
Nwaire also assured that the network reinforcement and improvement programme of the company was being pursued vigorously adding that a lot of relief and upgrade projects in different parts of the network were going on and would soon be completed for better service delivery to customers.
Participants at the town hall meeting expressed their delight at the meeting saying that the company should hold such a forum as regularly as possible to promote better interaction and understanding between it and its customers.
