The Chief Executive Officer of Power Holding Company of Nigeria(PHCN),? Chris Okaa Akamnonu, has promised? that the company would optimise electricity power generation to the benefit of the consumers.
The PHCN boss gave the assurance while fielding questions from Journalists recently at the Power Consumer Assembly in Lagos, organised by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
He also said the Ikeja Electricity Distribution arm of the company would raise its monthly meter installation to 10,000 by December, adding that the target when achieved would translate to a 100 percent increase from its current? 5,000.
Akamnonu explained that having overcome the initial challenges facing the company, there has been a substantial improvement in power generation, noting that electricity supply to Ikeja Electricity Distribution Company had increased to about 600 megawatts (MW) from about 340mw to 350mw about a month ago.
He reiterated the company’s determination to serve the customers better, pointing out that the customer complaint desks have been set up in every business unit of the company.
He said if the problem was not resolved at that level, the customer could proceed to the zonal office and where it still remains unresolved, the customer could go to the unit set up by the NERC.
The PHCN boss who also drew the attention of the customers to his obligations, said: “The Power Consumer Assembly is to educate the customers about the industry, not just about their rights, but also about what is happening in the industry.
“The effort being made is to make things better in the electricity industry by the government and the regulator for us as users of electricity. Some of the rights enunciated include the right to complain when you are unfairly treated, the right to dispute your bill especially if you are being billed on estimation.
“ We have set up customer complaints units in all the business units. We also have a supervisory unit based in the zone, which oversees what is happening in the business units.”
He explained that there was a unit? called Customer Records and Debt Management that reconciles accounts that are disputed, saying the unit was very vital to the management because accuracy of bills would become much more serious.
“As power supply improves, emphasis will move from availability to affordability and to accuracy of billing.
Nobody will like to pay a kobo more than he or she has consumed. This is where it is important that we begin to prepare ourselves because power supply is improving by the day. What is delivered to me currently is close to 600mw a day as against between 340mw and 350mw a day in the past one month. This energy that is wheeled to me doesn’t go into the air, it is consumed. That is clear evidence that things are changing for better.”
Harping on the issue of prepaid metering, he said ,
“We have had issues in the past. We had problem with the arrangement that was in place with an operator, but we have overcome those problems now. We are rolling out at a rate that is encouraging to us. We are rolling out about 5,000 units a month now and we hope to achieve 6,000 units by the end of September and we hope to hit 10,000 by the end of December.”
According to him , the company currently gets new applications at the rate of about 2,500 to 3,000 every month, adding that by the time it starts, it will be installing 7,000 to 8,000 and to 10,000 per month.
He said after removing the 3,000 new applicants, the remaining 7,000 installations go to customers who have bad meters or who paid the time the company had issues with the operator.
He assured to customers that by February next year, the backlog of meters by old customers who have paid would have been installed. “We are service provider and would want a fair deal”.
Akamnonu said though the customers have their rights which the company was determined to uphold, they (customers) have obligations to the company as well.
He urged the consumers to ensure they pay for their meters and to avoid? tampering with metering infrastructure or encourage diversion of load.