New Presidential Metering Initiative to Unlock N1tn Revenue Tied up in NESI

Abuja Distribution Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) has highlighted some of the anticipated gains of the Presidential Metering Initiative (PMI), stating that the scheme will unlock about N1 trillion revenue currently tied up in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) due to large number of unmetered customers.

Managing Director of AEDC, Mr. Victor Ojelabi, disclosed this in Lagos during an exclusive chat with THISDAY on the sidelines of the West Africa Innovation Awards 2024, where Abuja Disco was awarded the Most Customer-focused Electricity Distribution Company of the Year.

Ojelabi said the federal government had looked at the meeting gap for all the distribution companies in Nigeria and discovered a gap of about six million that needed to be met with a total cost of about N900 billion.

He said the government is currently working out the modalities for making the funds available to Discos to enable them to meter their customers.

Under the funding arrangement, he said the Discos would pay back the fund to the provider – the Ministry of Finance Incorporated (MOFI), noting that President Bola Tinubu is particularly concerned about the success of the new meeting scheme.

He added that all the meters to be deployed under the PMI would be smart meters that would allow for remote monitoring right from the Discos to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and all the way to the generation companies (Gencos) for proper energy accounting.

Ojelabi explained: “They’ve looked at the various metering schemes that had been done in the past, Meter Asset Provider (MAP) and the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP), the flaws and the shortcomings, but this new programme will address all the shortcomings.

“They are also introducing a meter management system and all the meters that will be deployed now will be smart meters that can be seen remotely from the distribution companies to the TCN to the Gencos, so that we can see where the money is flowing.

“When this is done, it will release a lot of liquidity into the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry. Customers not being fully metered is tying up close to N1 trillion in the electricity sector.”

According to him, in the next one year or maximum of two years, the metering gap in Nigeria will be cleared, noting that the ministry of power and other relevant stakeholders were involved to ensure the success of the programme.

The AEDC boss also revealed that about 150,000 distribution transformers (DTs) across the 11 Discos would be installed with smart meters under the PMI once all the customers have been successfully metered.

With that arrangement, Ojelabi said both the transmission feeders and the transformers would be metered just as all the customers feeding from DTs are metered.

He explained that with the PMI, the power sector could then remotely monitor end-to-end energy accounting and accountability, adding that the scheme would ensure that liquidity begins to flow better, thus making the power industry attractive to investors.

However, on the AEDC’s side regarding meeting, Ojelabi said the utility firm currently has about 1.3 million customers, with about 850 customers metered, leaving the company with a metering gap of about 500,000, which it is working on closing within the next one year.

On the award received, he thanked the organisers of the West Africa Innovation Awards and AEDC customers for trusting and giving the company the opportunity to serve them, adding that the award was a testament to the hard work of the Disco’s team.

Ojelabi said: “We believe that customer care is a mindset that permeates every aspect of our business. And we thank the organisers because your aim is to ensure innovation, creativity and excellence in customer service and customer relationship.

“So, we thank you for counting us worthy to have this award and we will continue to associate with you because what you stand for, which is promoting innovation, creativity and excellence is what AEDC and our core investor believe in.

“The award didn’t come as a surprise to us because we have a new turnaround team and the focal point of our business is to serve our customers well. So, we try to make every customer happy regardless of the difficult terrain and the challenge which may be beyond us as a Disco.”