The Chairman Senate Committee on Power, Senator Gabriel Suswam has reiterated the importance of national mass metering program, noting that it will help to address issues associated with energy theft.
Just as the Chairman, Board of Directors, Kaduna Electric, Alhaji Yusuf Hamisu Abubakar, called on electricity consumers to avoid all forms of power theft such as bypassing among others to enable the company provide better services.
Addressing the official flag off of the National Mass Metering Program in Kaduna on Friday, the former Benue state governor said the National Assembly (NASS) is doing everything possible to introduce electricity bill to help address the numerous challenges in the power sector.
According to the Senator, who performed the flagging off, “What the National Assembly is doing is to appropriate enough money to Transmission Company of Nigeria, so that TCN will reduce infrastructure deficit that have resulted to technical loses. I heard from them that in past few days they were able to evacuate 5,000+megawatts.
“We need to consistently have about 7,000 megawatts of electricity in transmission line and that can only happen when infrastructural deficits are reduced and for that enough money must be appropriated to them to address that, so we are working on that.
“Now, if we reduce the technical loses and have about 7,000mw, that is about 80% of customers because from the statistics, 10 million Nigerians are on the network but only 4 million have been metered, with this programme, we expect that at least 80% or 90% of customers will be metered, once you reduce the technical loses the electricity industry will become very robust, people who are paying will have electricity almost 24 hours.”
According to Senator Suswam, though having 24 hours power supply will take some time, but at least 18 -20 hours supply will create stability in the industry for DISCOS.
He noted that with the metering of houses now, consumers will have no option but to be disciplined in the way they use electricity, as Bulbs and other power consuming objects will have to be put off when not in use.
“All forms of electricity theft will equally be reduced minimally, i’m also sure that a mechanism of check will be put in place to avoid bypass.” He assured Nigerians that the exorbitant charges hitherto complained about will no longer be there as the industry is now determined to operate based on service reflective tariff from cost reflective tariff.
Speaking at the occasion, Mairago said, President Muhammadu Buhari administration wants quality services for the citizens and the power producers and distributors like Kaduna Electric are equally committed to that. He lamented however that debts, lack of payment, energy theft among others are major challenges hampering effective performance.
“What we want our customers and consumers to help us do is not only to pay their bills but also to ensure that people who are stealing power are reported to the agency. Because if your neighbor is stealing power and you do not report, what you are actually doing is short changing yourself,” he said.
The Chairman noted that they are doing everything possible to meter all their clients, while calling on customers to work and collaborate with the company during and after the deployment and installation of the meters to be carried out by MOJEC mobile map.
