AEDC to distribute 500,000 pre-paid meters to customers

The Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) said that it would start distributing 500, 000 pre-paid meters to its customers from January.

The Head, Media and Public Relations of AEDC, Mr Ahmed Shekarau, made the disclosure in an interview with the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Abuja on Tuesday.

"AEDC is planning to roll out mass metering programme of 500,000 pre-paid meters to its customers beginning from January 2016,’’ shekarau said.

According to him, the programme will be handled in phases and it is expected to run for five years, 2016 to 2021.

He said the AEDC would distribute 100,000 to 120, 000 smart pre-paid meters every year until all the meters were distributed to customers.

Shekarau noted, however, that the meters would be given to customers free of charge.

According to him, the AEDC has started a pilot scheme of the distribution at Life Camp in the FCT and Minna in Niger.

He said that contractors handling the projects had been given 5,000 meters each to use as a test-case, so as to ascertain the efficiency of the project.

Shekarau said that some areas in Kubwa, Orozo, Karu and Nyanya that were not having electricity could be due to some localised problems emanating from their transformers.

He explained that when AEDC found out that the programme was effective, it would replicate it to all its customers.

The image maker said the present generation of 5,000 megawatts of electricity meant that power had to be rationed to ensure that every customer got electricity.

He said that AEDC inherited many challenges, including cases of un-metered customers and un-paid bills.

Shekarau said that customers, who had money to install their own meters could do so.

He added that through Credit Advance Payment Metering (CAMPE) introduced by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission in 2013, such customers would later be paid their money with interest by their distribution companies.

Shekarau said that AEDC inherited archaic and disjointed billing system from PHCN but that it had now improved its billing system tremendously.

He said that AEDC was planning to put cameras on its installations such that if there was any fault, it would be able to detect it before power outage.

The spokesman, however, urged customers to pay their bills as at when due, to ensure stable electricity to consumers.