Electricity consumers across the country have been cautioned against purchasing electricity assets such as meters, poles and transformers, unless they sign an agreement with the DisCos stating when and how they will be refunded the cost of the transformer or the purchased asset.
The National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), disclosed this in Abuja at the 3-day NERC/Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) Customer Complaint Resolution Meeting.
NERC’s Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, Aisha Mahmud, said it was not the responsibility of electricity consumers to buy transformers or any other assets for DisCos.
According to her, in the event that the consumer has to buy the assets, the agreement should contain a dispute resolution clause and all other items that are expected of a standard agreement.
“It is not the responsibility of the consumers to buy meters, poles or any assets for the DisCos because we have already provided for that in the tariff of the utilities.
“But under any circumstances that you have to purchase this item and you cannot wait for the DisCos to make that investment, we have made provision for that under our “Investment Regulation,’’ Mahmud stated.
The commissioner, however, added that the commission came up with an “investment regulation” which specifies that if a customer has to purchase a transformer, it has to be done through an agreement.
“What we expect from the DisCo is to use their Internally Generated Revenue (IGR) to buy those assets or rather use shareholders’ investment or borrow from the banks to purchase those assets. In the event that they are not able to buy those assets, customers can come in and they have to be refunded.
“So what the consumers don’t know is that regulation exists and they go about making all sorts of investments which DisCos say is a donation to them because there is no agreement,” she added.
