Energy
Port Harcourt DisCo begins distribution of 1 million pre-paid meters in 4 states
PHED flagged off the distribution of the pre-paid meters in Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River and Rivers.
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED), has flagged off the distribution of about 1 million pre-paid meters to customers in its 4 coverage states—Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa, Cross River, and Rivers.
This was disclosed by Dr. Henry Ajagbawa, Managing Director of the company, during the flag-off ceremony of the exercise in Port Harcourt.
According to NAN, Dr. Ajagbawa said that the metering exercise, which would be done in phases, is expected to close the company’s metering gap of over 851,000 in its coverage states.
This is a drive towards achieving the objective of the National Mass Metering Programme (NIMMP) launched by the Federal Government.
Optics: The National Mass Metering Programme (NIMMP) stresses the need to close the nation’s metering gap.
This is in a bid to bring about the efficiency of revenue collection by Distribution Companies (DisCos), thereby enabling them to meet their obligations towards other upstream market participants.
READ: Power: Distribution of meters resumes in Lagos, Abuja, Kaduna and others
What they are saying
The Managing Director of the company, while speaking at the flag-off ceremony of the exercise, said: “The mass metering exercise will begin in Rivers state, followed by Akwa Ibom, Bayelsa and Cross Rivers until every single customer is metered, and the exercise is going to be done in phases, and we are starting with phase zero with the deployment of 77,000 metres to homes and offices in Rivers. Thereafter, we will move to phase one of the mass metering of customers across our franchise area.”
He revealed that the company had plans for customers using obsolete meters.
“Aside our metering gap of 851,000 meters, we need another 100,000 meters to replace other metres. So, we need a total of about one million meters. In addition, we expect that we should be able to install a minimum of 20,000 meters per month, meaning that it will take us about three years to meter the four states.
READ: 7 years after, Omatek struggles to service N5.81bn BOI loan
“On completion of the exercise within the shortest possible time, customers will no longer have complaints of the estimated bill. However, customers should prepare to change their old habits by managing their electricity to enable them to afford their energy consumption,” he added.
What you should know
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED) joined the league of DisCos that have taken serious steps towards achieving the goal of closing the metering gap in the National Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
READ: COVID-19: Why banks would rather donate billions to FG than credit their customers’ accounts
Recall that Nairametrics earlier reported that Ikeja Electric had commenced the rollout of pre-paid meters under the National Mass Metering Programme.
In line with this programme, Ikeja Electric Plc (IE) stated that it was committed to driving the rollout through a series of one-day metering initiatives across different locations in its network.
READ: DisCos earn N473 billion in 2019, reveal reason for metering gap
The metering initiative is designed to ensure a seamless metering process that allows customers to register and be metered on the same day after following due process.
Columnists
What FGN Free Meter Program means for the power sector
Without effective penalties for erring DisCos and consumers, progress may still remain very slow.
According to news reports, the Minister of Power, Mamman Saleh on Wednesday said the distribution of the four million free electricity prepaid meters pledged by the Central Bank of Nigeria would soon begin across the country.
According to him, the government is wrapping up the distribution of its initial one million meters, which he labelled phase zero, and would soon begin the distribution of the four million sponsored by CBN, which he tagged phase two. He also noted that the Federal Executive Council approved N3bn for the execution of six major electricity projects in the country to upgrade Nigeria’s electricity facilities and improve power supply across the country.
Ineffective metering remains a major drawback to the success of power sector reforms in Nigeria. While some consumers avoid paying for power consumed through meter bypass, some other consumers are made to pay for what they have not consumed through estimated billing by DisCos.
DisCos have been largely unsuccessful with metering their customers.
As far as inadequate metering is concerned, DisCos over time, have used this situation to their advantage via estimated billings. It appears that fully metering customers are currently being viewed as a disincentive, given that estimated bills can easily be manipulated.
According to a report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), only 4,234,759 (40.27%) of the total customer population of 10,516,090 were metered as of 30 June 2020. Clearly, this validates the widely held view that there are a wide number of customers on estimated billing which gives room for illegal connection to the networks and in turn corrupt practices. NERC further revealed that only three out of 11 Electricity Distribution Companies in the country had metered more than 50% of electricity customers under their coverage areas as of June 2020.
Effective metering in our view is one step ahead in solving the myriad of problems embattling the Nigerian power sector. Though supposed to be unpaid for, many customers in a bid to avoid the bureaucracy associated with getting meters have paid to get their own meters. We believe the provision of meters to all end-use customers will go a long way in ameliorating the liquidity squeeze in the power sector whilst also providing cashflow to the DisCos for investment in equipment needed to evacuate unused electricity to consumers nationwide.
We laud the FG’s efforts at distributing meters freely to end-users, but we note that without effective penalties for erring DisCos and consumers, progress may still remain very slow.
CSL Stockbrokers Limited, Lagos (CSLS) is a wholly owned subsidiary of FCMB Group Plc and is regulated by the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigeria. CSLS is a member of the Nigerian Stock Exchange.
Energy
BUA Group awards contract for polypropylene plant in its refinery project
The completion of the project is to help boost Nigeria’s capacity to meet the country’s increasing demand for petrochemical products.
Nigeria’s leading indigenous conglomerate, BUA Group has announced that it has signed a contract agreement with Lummus Technology for the establishment of a polypropylene plant in its refinery and petrochemical project.
The completion of the project is to help boost Nigeria’s capacity to meet the country’s increasing demand for petrochemical products.
The Chairman of BUA Group, Abdul Samad Rabiu, while disclosing the contract agreement, expressed confidence in the capacity and technical expertise of Lummus Technology to deliver a best-in-class project.
READ: BUA says its export-focused sugar project will create jobs and checkmate price hike
What the Chairman of BUA Group is saying
Rabiu in his statement said, “We are pleased to sign this polypropylene contract for our BUA refinery and petrochemicals project with Lummus Technology, a world leader in delivering polypropylene solutions, which will solve the increasing demand for high-performance grade polypropylene in Nigeria, the Gulf of Guinea as well as the Sub-Saharan Africa Region.
“We are confident in the capacity and technical expertise of Lummus Technology to deliver a best-in-class, 285,000 tpy polypropylene unit for our refinery project scheduled to come on stream in 2024.’’
READ: Dangote, BUA reconcile over sugar plant dispute after meeting with Ganduje, others
What the President/Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology is saying
On his part, the President/Chief Executive Officer of Lummus Technology, Leon de Bruyn, said that he was looking forward to working with BUA refinery on the project.
Leon said, “We look forward to working with BUA Refinery on this critical project and supporting the first Novolen polypropylene unit in Nigeria. Our world-class Novolen technology is well suited to meet Nigeria’s increasing demand for the growing petrochemical products market.
It offers a flexible range of industry-leading products for all PP applications, and the industry’s lowest overall capital and operational costs while providing customers with high process reliability and flexibility in responding to market needs.”
READ: BUA Group, French company announce progress in 200,000 bpd refinery project
What you should know
Lummus Novolen Technology GmbH licenses polypropylene technology and provides related engineering and technical support/advisory services. Novolen also supplies NHP® catalysts for the production of high-performance polypropylene grades in the Novolen process, and NOVOCENE® metallocene catalyst for the production of special polypropylene grades.
