THE Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission , NERC, has said replacing or repairing bad electricity transformers is not the duty of customers but squarely that of power distribution companies, DisCos.
Mrs Aisha Mamoud, Commissioner for Consumer Affairs, NERC, stated this on Saturday during a three-day Problem-Solving session between customers in Cross River and PHEDC from Thursday to Saturday, Aug. 10 tagged “Customer Complaints Resolution Meeting”
She said consumers payment of electricity bills is for services which should be rendered and not to be made to pay for replacement or repairs of transformers or cables.
Mamoud said the meeting became necessary because of customers complaints on metering, excessive billing and transformer vandalism.
She explained that the idea behind the meeting was to educate and enlightened consumers about the electricity industry and their rights as a consumers.
“In regards to our duties and responsibilities as a Regulatory body,, the consumer act says we should try to maximize access to electricity giving that all consumers in this country have access to electricity irrespective of where they live. It is their fundmental right to have access to electricity
” Another reason we are here is to resolve all your complaints . We have done it in several parts of the country and it was a very huge success. All your complaints will be solve on the spot.” She assured.
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She stressed that it is the responsibility of DisCos to provide metres to avoid estimated billing and that the federal government has signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Discos on provision of metres.
On her part, Mrs Olubukola Ilevbare, Head, Corporate Communication PHED, said the company is having challenges meeting the demands of vandalism in the state.
She noted that most of the transformers issues are caused by vandalism noting that on several occasions, the PHED had replaced transformers vandalized by criminals.
“I now there are times that we don’t respond to our customers as we should, maybe as a result of demands; our goal is to do our best to ensure that whenever there are genuine complaints, we attend to them.
“On the issue of metres, it is the responsibility of DisCos to provide metres, but when a customer cannot wait for the DisCo to provide the mitre, which is done in phases, he can pay for his own metre and within 10 days, it will be installed,” she said
Ilebare explained that though, there are cases where transformers are genuinely spoilt and it is the responsibility of PHED to fix them stressing that the company has been doing its best to meet customer needs.
In his speech, the House of Representatives member, representing Bakassi, Calabar South and Akpabuyo, Mr Joseph Bassey frowned at the issue of vandalism, excessive billing of customers and called for proper billing of consumers in the state
“Today’s meeting is a welcome development for the people in Cross River, electricity issue if address, it will help reduce the level of hardship and this will boost the economy.
“PHED has failed in various ways , they only get money from consumers and refuse to do maintenance. The issue of grading, I don’t feel good about it, everybody has the right to electricity, so why create bands to categorize where a particular area belongs.”