INTRODUCTION:
A lot has been said and written about the rather epileptic electricity supply in Nigeria. Very many commentators, including this author, have echoed the pains and frustrations of the final consumers of electricity in Nigeria in their essays.2 Majority of the agonies the electricity customers in Nigeria experience are directly from the Electricity Distribution Companies ("Discos"). This is understandably so, because the Discos are the closest to the final consumers of electricity in the electric power supply value chain. The agony is compounded by lack of adequate Prepaid Metering and the utilisation of unscientific estimated billing systems by the Discos. The disappointing common update from the customers' perspective, is that the problems do not appear to be nearing any end just yet.
In this author's previous commentaries, the double jeopardy of paying for darkness instead of electricity by the unmetered customers (i. e. customers without Prepaid Meters "PPM") who are made to bear the double pain (and swallow the bitter pills) of staying in darkness and paying for electricity not supplied to them has been the focus.3 But this short note focuses on a review of how the Discos have regularly crossed the boundaries to serve ridiculous estimated bills on customers who had hitherto been on PPM but who are temporarily put on estimated billing system during the repairs of their faulty PPM.
RECENT EXPERIENCE OF A CUSTOMER WHOSE FAULTY PPM WAS TAKEN FOR REPAIRS.
Recently in a 5 apartment premises where all the apartments have been using their separate PPMs for almost 2 years, it was observed that the PPMs were faulty as the customers could not read their balances on their accounts after several attempts for a period spanning about 3 weeks. They reported this development about their PPMs to the Disco on the 30th September 2021. Upon making the report, the Disco removed the PPMs from the premises for repairs and placed the customers on direct connection. They were also informed that power consumed during the period and any previous arrears would be loaded on the PPMs before they are reinstalled on the premises. While the customers were expecting that the PPMs would be repaired and returned to them within the shortest possible time, they were surprised when the Disco disconnected the entire premises from electricity supply on 5th November 2021. Upon making a complaint at the district office of the Disco, the Disco reconnected them to supply the next day.
Thereafter, they were issued with estimated 'loss of revenue' bills of various huge sums on Monday, 8th November 2021 and the Disco requested them to pay up the huge, estimated bills immediately. To be clear, the kind of bills that were served on them for the period covering 5 weeks between 30th September 2021 and 8th November 2021 which the Disco described as 'loss of revenue' bill are outrageously far and above the amount of electricity credits that each apartment had used for a period of about 18 months.
For instance, one of the customers on the premises, who had recharged a cumulative credit value of the sum of N48,000 for 18 months was billed the sum of N60,803.77 (Sixty Thousand Eight Hundred and Three Naira Seventy-Seven Kobo) for a period of approximately 5 weeks.
It is important to put in perspective the fact that the area where the premises is located is under Service Band D where customers can only expect 8 hours a day supply of electricity.
The apartments have all been disconnected on or about 10th November 2021. The officials who disconnected the electricity did not drop the disconnection order (written notice advising date, time, reason for disconnection and what the customer should do next) on both occasions and the customers have to ask for same before it was sent to them.
Although, written complaints have been submitted to the Disco with a copy to the regulator, the Disco has insisted that customers must pay the outrageous bills served on them due to no fault of theirs. The Disco has also been coercing each customer on the premises to pay up by keeping them disconnected and thus forcing them to pay the huge, estimated bill under duress essentially. The apartments that have paid have been reconnected while those who are still waiting for the reconciliation of their accounts to be done before payment are still kept in darkness as we write this.
SOME LEGAL AND OPERATIONAL BREACHES BY THE DISCO INVOLVED IN THIS CASE.
(1) Provision and maintenance of PPMs: It is and remains the responsibility of the Disco to provide PPMs to their customers and maintain same. The Performance Agreement which is the basis of the Discos' obligations makes clear that they must provide PPM to their customers.4 Upon failing to provide this, the regulator has helped with various means of intervention to increase the metering level in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry ("NESI").
(2) Method of Calculating the Estimated Bill of Unmetered Customers: The Disco is expected to use the current Amended Order on the Capping of Estimated Bills in The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (Order No/NERC/197/2020) to calculate these customers' bills. Section 19 of that Order specifically enjoins the Discos to adopt the consumption data of metered end-use customers whose meters had been verified in the business units in the Disco's network. In this instance, the customer uses an average of N2,400 per month considering that he was on Service Band D where the supply is limited to about 8 hours a day on days that they have electricity supply. It is thus clear that N60,000 for 5 weeks cannot be justified by any method.
(3) Customer's right not to be cut off supply by the Disco until after 10 working days after Service of Bill on the Customers: By virtue of the Connection and Disconnection Procedures for Electricity Services, 2007, the customer has the right not to be disconnected except where the Customer has not paid the amount correctly billed for the supply address by the relevant payment date. As a matter of fact, the Disco must verify from its records that the payment has not been made and the period between the payment date and the date of disconnection is not less than 3 months. The violation of this Regulation committed by the Disco is an offence for which they are liable on conviction to pay the Customer a penalty as stipulated in the Regulation for each, or part of a day that the supply is wrongfully disconnected.
(4) Disconnection of Customers during Repairs of Faulty PPMs: It is worthy of note that as at the time the PPMs were removed for repairs, the customer had 168.9 kwh on the PPM so there was no loss of revenue in fact. For a customer that had PPM, the Disco was not expected to disconnect them from electricity supply while repairs of their PPMs was going on. Besides the customer's rights to have the right to be notified in writing ahead of disconnection of electricity service by the Disco serving the customer in line with Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission's ("NERC") guidelines was breached.
(5) Disconnection of Customers during Reconciliation of contested estimated bill: Without an iota of doubt, the Disco was wrong to have disconnected the client when a written complaint has been submitted over the estimated bill. Section 10 (1) (d) of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission's Connection and Disconnection Procedure for Electricity Services 2007 provides for customers' right to a refund when overbilled for electricity, right to contest any electricity bill issued to the customer and right to file complaints and receive a prompt resolution of the complaints. Even an un-metered customer who is contesting his or her estimated bill has the right not to pay the disputed bill but should pay only the last undisputed bill while the contested bill goes through the dispute resolution procedures of NERC.
(6) Swift Resolution of Disputes between the customer and the Disco: The customer has a right to quick resolution especially in this kind of scenario where the customer had a PPM prior to the PPM developing a fault. The Disco should have even provided a replacement PPM without delay. The Disco is obliged to do this by section 3 of the Customer Complaints Handling Standards and Procedure 2006.
(6) Discos should avoid Litigation by attending to Genuine Complaints fairly and timeously: By Section 13 of the Customer Complaints Handling Standards and Procedure 2006, nothing contained in the regulations affects the rights and privileges of the customer under any other law for the time being in force. This aligns with the constitutional right of citizens to approach the courts for resolution of their complaints and disputes with the Discos.
CONCLUSION.
As this comment is being concluded, the news filtered in that the Management Board of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has been removed due to internal wrangling leading to lack of electricity supply to significant parts of their service areas and a recent workers' strike. This action testifies to the pain an average consumer of electricity in Nigeria goes through. The consistent view of this writer remains that the Discos must meter their customers, and thus collect money before customers can use electricity. It is also necessary to always treat the customers right. Ineffective electricity supply and connected services from the Discos and collecting tariffs via estimated methodologies can only be tolerated for a limited time.
Footnotes
1 Peter Olaoye Olalere, Notary Public for Nigeria, Associate Partner and Head of Energy Practice at S. P. A. Ajibade & Co., Lagos Office, Nigeria.
2 See some of our previous articles on this subject: "Recent Order On The Capping Of Estimated Bills In The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry: A Timely Regulatory Scale-Balancing Order" accessible at https://www.mondaq.com/nigeria/oil-gas-electricity/923040/recent-order-on-the-capping-of-estimated-bills-in-the-nigerian-electricity-supply-industry-a-timely-regulatory-scale-balancing-order.;
"Covid 19 Pandemic Aggravates The Discontent Between Discos And The Nigerian Electricity Consumers Over Lack Of Prepaid Meters And Estimated Billing" accessed at https://www.mondaq.com/nigeria/oil-gas-electricity/951488/covid-19-pandemic-aggravates-the-discontent-between-discos-and-the-nigerian-electricity-consumers-over-lack-of-prepaid-meters-and-estimated-billing.; "Amended Order On The Capping Of Estimated Bills In The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry – A Delicate Regulatory Balancing Act" accessed at https://www.mondaq.com/nigeria/oil-gas-electricity/1018564/amended-order-on-the-capping-of-estimated-bills-in-the-nigerian-electricity-supply-industry-a-delicate-regulatory-balancing-act.; "The Current Discontent Between The Discos And Nigerian Electricity Consumers Over Non-Compliance With The Performance Agreement On Metering" accessed at https://www.mondaq.com/nigeria/oil-gas-electricity/854416/the-current-discontent-between-the-discos-and-nigerian-electricity-consumers-over-non-compliance-with-the-performance-agreement-on-metering?type=mondaqai&score=67.; "How Has The National Mass Metering Programme Impacted The Estimated Billing System Of The Unmetered End-Use Customers In The Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry" accessible at https://www.mondaq.com/nigeria/oil-gas-electricity/1080048/how-has-the-national-mass-metering-programme-impacted-the-estimated-billing-system-of-the-unmetered-end-use-customers-in-the-nigerian-electricity-supply-industry.
3 Ditto.
4 See our previous highlight of this in "Are The Discos Complying With Their Performance Agreement On Metering The Nigerian Electricity Consumers?" accessible at https://www.mondaq.com/nigeria/oil-gas-electricity/766402/are-the-discos-complying-with-their-performance-agreement-on-metering-the-nigerian-electricity-consumers.
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