EEDC Commences Free Prepaid Meter Rollout
The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company PLC (EEDC) has commenced the second phase of its free prepaid meter distribution under “Tranche B” of the Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF) metering program.
MAF is a metering initiative instituted by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to close the existing metering gap in the sector and put an end to estimated billing.
Mr Emeka Ezeh, the Group Head, Corporate Communications of EEDC who disclosed this in a statement on Tuesday said the metering programme funded through MAF “Tranche B”, was targeted at unmetered band “A” customers in the Southeast.
Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF) is a pool of funds contributed by all distribution companies in the country, which is used for procurement of prepaid meters for deployment to customers free of charge.
The program is overseen by a fund manager and NERC
Ezeh said a total of 13,335 customers of EEDC, including those of its subsidiary companies, would benefit in this phase of the metering program which began on Nov.2 with the Know Your Customer (KYC) validation exercise.
He said customers were not expected to pay to have the meters installed in their facilities.
He said the meters and their installation were totally free and cautioned against making any form of payment to the meter installers or succumbing to any form of inducement or extortion.
“This aligns with our organisation’s commitment to improving service transparency and customer satisfaction,” he said.
Ezeh said the programme prioritised customers under Band “A” feeders and urged customers to verify and update their contact information by visiting the Customer Service Unit at the distribution company’s office serving them.
He said EEDC teams would be reaching out to customers on the metering exercise through the information they provided in their company profile.
Ezeh said EEDC had earlier this year successfully completed “Tranche A” of the MAF metering program, with a total of 13,614 band “A” customers being metered.
He assured that once all customers under band “A” are metered, attention would then shift to those in band “B” adding that the idea was to systematically close the existing metering gap across the network.
He urged customers who would not be captured in the current “Tranche B” MAF metering exercise to be patient because another metering initiative known as Distribution Sector Recovery Project (DISREP) was underway.
He warned against bypassing these prepaid meters when they are installed as that would not only defeat the whole essence of the exercise, but undermine the efforts being made to instill efficiency and revenue protection.
“Customers should avoid engaging in meter bypass, energy theft, and all other illegal activities, and should report anyone engaging in such criminal activity.”
He urged customers to reach out to the company via its call centre on 02084700100 or its WhatsApp lines on 0707 461 0095 and 07
07 461 0088, for further inquiries.
