The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has announced that Abuja Electricity Distribution Company has been fined N1.69bn for the violation of overbilling of customers.
In the September 2024 Supplementary Order, the penalty was documented as Order NERC/2024/114, The fine which was a regulatory order ORDER/NERC/2024/114, was dated August 30 signed by the by Vice Chairman, Musiliu Oseni, and Commissioner, Legal, Licensing and Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye. the document was published on the NERC’s website on Thursday.
The document explained that the fine was issued because of the AEDC’s non-compliance with the commission’s previous order on capping estimated billing for electricity consumers.
The NERC has been investigating the infraction by the distribution agency AEDC, identified that the company had been overcharging electricity consumers who have been unmetered for the past months, starting from January to the current month, where it was discovered that the company has been into some illegal dealings. The fine, according to the agency, amounts to 10 per cent of the overbilled amount.
In the document which was titled September 2024 Supplementary Order to the Multi-Year Tariff Order 2024 for AEDC, the reasons behind the fine was ,listed also the adjustments were outined by the agency to be the new revenue requirements and tariffs.
The document disclosed that the agency had approved the removal of the total of N1.69bn from the total annual OpEx of AEDC, which will begin in September 2024, which is the 10 per cent of the overbilled amount by AEDC for the period covering January-September 2023
The agency further disclosed that the fie was given to the company after a several customers had complained to the agency and subsequent investigations proves rightly that the AEDC had failed to adhere to the regulatory guidelines on estimated billing.
The NERC further disclosed that the agency issued the order to improve delivery and monitor compliance with service-based tariffs. Also, it was stated that the company AEDC has been mandated to ensure the continuous monitoring of its service levels to company customers, especially those who have been placed on the band A reader.
The regulation document noted that if the company fails to deliver its committed level of service on a Band A feeder for two consecutive days, the company must publish on its website by 10 a.m. the next day the reasons for the failure to deliver the stated amount of light to the customers.
The Supplementary Order docuemt also mandated the AEDC to to procure at least a minimum of 61MW f embedded generation, with at least 30MW sourced from renewable energy, which will improve the readability of electricity supply with the areas of their operations. The order noted that the procurement of the capacity must be executed by April next year.
The document noted that the measure was important to meet AEDC’s service delivery commitments under its Service-Based Tariff framework.
The NERC also gave a nod to the company to implement a new tariff, disclosing that the agency had approved a new tariff which came into effect on the 1st of September 2024
The document also noted that in case of power failure, the company must compensate the customers in every way possible, explaining that failure to deliver up to 20 hours of average supply but more than 18 hours of average supply must be compensated.
The new order was disclosed to be in effect till a new tariff review is issued. The NERC expressed its commitment to ensure that electricity distribution companies adhere to the regulatory guidelines while the customers from unfair billing by the government,
