Jos Disco: JED install 22,000 meters, decry high level of vandals in Plateau, Bauchi

The Jos Electricity Distribution Company (JEDC), said it has installed 22,000 smart meters out of 50,000 procured. It however decried the high level of vandalization of its equipment, as well as the resist of metering installation by some residents in Plateau and Benue states.

Speaking with journalists yesterday in Jos, the Managing Director of JEDC, Mr. Mohammed Modibbo, expressed dissatisfaction with customers’ apathy to payment of bills, resistance to smart meter installation, harassment of staff, meter bypass, vandalisation of meters and other equipment.

Modibbo said if these heinous act continues unabated JED will find it difficult to efficiently provide electricity supply to its teeming consumers.

Dissatisfied with the continuous unpatriotic consumers living in low-cost area of Plateau and some parts of Bauchi states, the JEDC boss said Jos Disco will engage the services of security agencies in dealing with any criminal element found vandalising its equipment or harassing its staff from installing meters, adding that every customer most be captured in their data base through metering.

Although he noted that JED is faced with similar challenge in other states of its jurisdiction like Gombe and Benue States, but said that it has been able to resolve them through customers consultative forum, which has also been applied in Plateau and Bauchi states but has yielded little result.

Modibbo said legal actions has been instituted to some defaulters’ of bill payment through bypassing of meters and vandalism, vowing that he will sustain prosecution on criminal elements who are bent on sabotaging the effort of the company.

His words: customers has reluctantly refused our staffs to install the smart meters with reasons that the new meter is running too fast; we have explained to them that it rather help them to conserve energy and only pay for what they consume, but because they are not use to paying bills with the old system before we took over, they are finding it difficult to come to terms with reality.

“We have advised that consumers should switch off appliances when they don’t have need for it, for instance if you leave one bulb on every day for eight hours, in a month you will be billed N1000 for that bulb.

“The truth is that the smart meter helps you to conserve and regulate energy because when it is turned off your credit remain intact and can only count when it is turned on”, the MD said.

He further narrated how 168 customers bypassed metering in Bauchi state, saying that most of them are now cooling off in Jail.

“We have a recession to come out from and electricity plays a major role in leading use out of it, but if people continue to bypass meter, how can we ever come out this economic down turn”, Modibbo emphasized.