The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company says about 40 percent of its customers have not been captured in the ongoing National Mass Metering Program.
The timeline for closing the gap was one of the major issues addressed during an interaction session with the media at the organization’s headquarters in the capital city.
The National Electricity Regulatory Commission launched the Mass Metering Program in August 2020.
Under this initiative, the Central Bank of Nigeria was brought in to fund the purchase of meters on behalf of the eleven distribution companies who in turn are to distribute them for free to the electricity consumers.
The Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company for its part, services 14 million households in Rivers, Bayelsa, Akwa-Ibom and Cross River States.
And While the Company boasts of achieving 100 percent implementation in Phase Zero of the program, 40 percent of its customers remain unmetered.
Given the benefits of metering to the consumer and the distributors, PHEDC hopes to hit 80 percent coverage by December 2022.
For now there is no sign of a downward review of electricity tariff especially as the power sector continues to lose billions of naira to power theft but for the paying customers, billing must match consumption.
