BEDC flags off enumeration, mapping exercise in Ekiti

To ensure accurate metering and safeguarding the rights of electricity consumers in Ekiti state, the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) is to roll out a total of 67, 452 meters to consumers in the state.

The company said metering all consumers will encourage willingness to pay their monthly bills and reduce the burden of huge debts being owed by consumers through estimated billing.

The BEDC Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer, Mrs. Funke Osibodu, represented by the Executive Director in- charge of Commercial, Dr. Abu Ejoor, said this in Ado Ekiti on Monday during the official launch of the mapping and enumeration exercise leading to the registration of consumers to have access to pre-paid meters.

For the scheme to be successful, Osibodu urged the government to implement relevant laws to stop cases of vandalism, advising that mobile courts can be set up to try criminals perpetrating this nefarious act.

She said the mapping and enumeration initiative is in line with the directive of the National Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC), to encourage development of independent and competitive meter services, eliminate estimated billing, attract private investment, close the metering gap and ensure revenue assurance in the electricity supply industry.

Osibodu said power will be restored in Gbonyin and Ekiti East Local Government Areas of the state that have been in darkness for over five years after the scheme, saying the power outage in the councils was caused by rejection of bulk billings by consumers in the affected areas.

“The customer’s premises will be cleared whether you want a single or double phase before you are metered. Metering will start from Ado Ekiti and move to other local governments. We warn that customers should not pay cash to enumerators; they should pay to our designated banks.

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“An average of 13, 542 megawatts is supplied to Ekiti on monthly basis and 14 per cent of the power generated is lost due to poor network facilities and technical losses caused by non -payment of bills and theft.

“We want our customers to cooperate with our officers as they move around to capture them in the two exercises because the enumeration process will help in resolving almost 60 per cent of the complaints from customers,” he said.

Osibodu lamented that the greatest challenges of electricity supply in Ekiti state has always been the transmission bottlenecks, vandalism, massive energy theft, high community unrest and the huge debts owed on bills.

On the Ekiti communities that have been in darkness for years, Labiyi said: “They found themselves in this condition because they rejected pre-paid meters.

They said they preferred individual billings, which was not possible because there was no way we could know what they were consuming.

“We are sure that their issues will be resolved after this enumeration.”