Friday, March 29, 2024

Electricity scam! Six DISCOs make N24bn monthly as power supply worsens – Investigation

As power supply across the country worsens, and with the distribution companies’ resolve to recover all outstanding debts owed the defunct Power Holding Company of Nigeria, the settlement of crazy bills for less electricity supply by consumers has contributed in increasing the joint revenue of six major Discos to N24bn monthly, The Point’s findings have revealed.
Impeccable sources at the Ikeja Electric Disco Limited, Eko Disco Limited, Ibadan Electric Disco Limited, Benin Electric Disco, Abuja Disco, and Enugu Disco, who spoke with The Point in separate interviews, confirmed that each of the Discos had boosted its revenue from about N2.5billion, monthly, to N4billion between January and September 2017. They are expected to increase the revenue further to N6billion each before the end of the year, especially during the Yuletide season, according to the sources.
The Discos allegedly found culpable in the act of exploiting consumers in the face of higher revenue targets are the Eko Disco, Ikeja Electric, Benin Disco, Enugu Disco, Ibadan Disco, Jos Disco, Kaduna Disco, Port Harcourt Disco, and Yola Disco.
Reliable sources at Ikeja Electric, Eko Disco, and IBEDC disclosed that the firms had increased the target given to their Power Allocation Teams and marketing staff in order to raise their revenue from N4billion per month to N6billion monthly, by the end of the year.

Before we read the meter by the transformer at the beginning of every month, we are directed to calculate the bills of the metered consumers and divide the remaining bills among unmetered consumers. That is the reason most people with little appliances or some that travelled for weeks are served the same bill at the end of each month

“The PAT and the monitoring unit have been asked to up their games. While PAT was asked to reduce demand from our transmission company, in order to make consumers pay more, the unit that reads the transformers’ meters on the first of every month has been instructed to increase the bill of unmetered consumers, from N4,000 per house to N8,000, especially in developing areas, with effect from November 1, 2017,” a source in Ikeja Electric told The Point.
In the case of IBEDC, EkDC, Benin Disco and Abuja Disco, the firms, it was learnt, had decided to explore the loopholes in the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s recommended estimated billing methodology for their unmetered customers.
In 2012, the NERC directed that, instead of giving the consumers ‘crazy bills’, all Discos should be billed on the weighted average cluster load.
This method involves the subtraction of the entire metered load from the energy supplied to the feeder (33kV or 11KV and others) and the application of an appropriately determined availability factor and correction of losses, which is aggregated among the various number and classes of customers supplied by the feeder.
An ex-staff of IBEDC, who pleaded not to be named, told our correspondent, “What they do is to give a consumer a fixed bill of what he uses at the peak period. If the person has four air conditioners, pressing iron and washing machines, he is billed for the appliances as if he uses them 24 hours every day; which is wrong.
“Before we read the meter by the transformer at the beginning of every month, we are directed to calculate the bills of the metered consumers and divide the remaining bills among unmetered consumers. That is the reason most people with little appliances or some that travelled for weeks are served the same bill at the end of each month.”
Further investigations revealed that the Discos were allegedly determined not to make the pre-paid meter an all-comers affair. Contrary to the NERC’s directive that new consumers should be metered within three and six months, most of the Discos have failed to supply the gadget.
In most cases, they (Discos) argued that indigenous pre-paid meters were substandard, insisting that they had to import theirs from some partners abroad. But experts alleged that most of the imported meters were worse than those manufactured locally.
Consequently, several millions of Nigerians, who had paid for the meters before the companies were privatised, are still waiting for the supplies, six years later.
Sources in IE and Yola Disco, told our correspondent that all the Discos had agreed to sabotage the efforts of local manufacturers of meters and the Federal Government on the metering of all electricity consumers in the country.
An Ikeja Electric employee said, “Their intention is to ensure that only 1/10 of the consumers are metered. For instance, IE said it would ensure 50,000 meters are rolled out before the end of 2018 and it is set to make noise about that. But over one million of its current consumers don’t have pre-paid meters. What rationing is that? If most houses have meters, their revenue would drop and they are ready to do anything to avoid that.
“Hundreds of the prepaid meters sold out are bad presently as the consumers have bypassed them to connect directly to the transformer. A lot of them malfunction by reading faster than they ought to, while others do not work from the first day.”

DISCOs, AGENTS ARE FRAUDSTERS – NIGERIANS
Several Nigerians, who reside in developing communities across some states in the country, described the performance of the Discos and their agents as fraudulent and unacceptable.
Many of them, who spoke to our correspondent in separate interviews, alleged that staff and agents of the companies perpetrate fraud during meter reading, payment, re-connection and registration for pre-paid meters, among others.
Some of the most aggrieved consumers reside in Dawaki Extension, a 20-minute drive from the Abuja city centre; Kabusa in Abuja; Kankia town, Nwala and Sabon Unguwa in Katsina State; Hayin Banki, Sabon-Gari in Tudun-Wada and Nnamdi Azikwe Bypass in Kaduna State; Magboro, Mowe, Ibafo and Agbado Station, in Ogun State; Igbogbo-Ikorodu, Lagos State; and Damaturu, Yobe State, among many others.

 

The PAT (Power Allocation Team) and the monitoring unit have been asked to up their games. While PAT was asked to reduce demand from our transmission company, in order to make consumers pay more, the unit that reads the transformers’ meters on the first of every month has been instructed to increase the bill of unmetered consumers, from N4,000 per house to N8,000, especially in developing areas, with effect from November 1, 2017

YOBE
Consumers in the state are bitter over what they described as outrageous billing and unfair rationing in favour of some Maximum Demand electricity customers by YEDC.
MDs are consumers that are connected on the high-tension wire (11kv) and mostly with their own dedicated transformers.
Findings revealed that most of the residents do not have prepaid meters as their estimated bills skyrocket beyond their imaginations every month.
For instance, a trader, Alhaji Baba Kawu, who resides in the state capital, Damaturu, lamented that the Disco increased his bill from N3,000 as at October 2016, to N9,000 by the end of October 2017, despite the fact that he did not have the capacity to consume one third of the said amount.
“I have decided to boycott their services, if the ‘crazy bill’ syndrome persists because I can’t afford such an outrageous amount. How can a three-bedroom bungalow consume this amount of electricity? YEDC is fond of overbilling its non-MD customers, all in the name of doubling revenue,” he said.
Another unmetered customer, Mr. Suleiman Muhammed, alleged that YEDC charged him about N15,000 every month, which, he said, was ridiculous because it tripled his consumption for the month.
“I have paid for the pre-paid meter twice, but it has not been supplied and the Disco insists that I have to pay such a fortune on electricity every month for the electricity I use only two times in a week,” he said.

KADUNA
Aside from the electricity consumers in Yobe State, their counterparts in Tudun-Wada, Hayin Banki, all in Kaduna State, are also aggrieved as they lamented over what they described as outrageous electricity charges.
While some complained that the electricity bills sent to their homes had increased by 100 per cent or more since October 2017, others alleged that the voltage was usually low and not useful for their electricity needs.
One of them and a resident of Tundun-Wada, Mr. Tajudeen Hassan, said, “Kaduna Disco has failed to address the challenge of dwindling supply of power in the last two years, yet my bill increased from N3,000 to N6,000 in October 2017, without an increase in my consumption.”
Another resident of Sabon-Gari, Alhaji Musa, alleged that the disco lacked basic tools to measure or read the transformers’ meters.
He said he was dismayed when he was served a bill of N9,000 and not the usual N4,000 he received before August 2017.
“When I asked the lady who delivered the document how I earned such a bill, I was told that I produced ice block at home. When I allowed them in to verify the allegation, and it was not true, after much argument, it was reduced to N5,000. They are scoundrels and cheats, who only reap from where they did not sow,” he said.

NASARAWA
The state of power supply in Lafia, the state capital is also worrisome as consumers expressed concern over an alleged under-performance of the Abuja Disco.
A trader, Mr. Charles Imo, told The Point that the situation prompted the state House of Assembly to summon the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, following thousands of petitions and complaints by consumers over poor power supply and overestimation.
“The speaker of the Assembly, Mr. Ibrahim Abdullahi, also complained about the estimated billing system by the AEDC and the fact that disconnected houses were billed at the end of every month,” he said.

LAGOS/OGUN
Though the consumers of electricity in the neighbouring states also complained bitterly about the billing systems of both the Ikeja Disco and Ibadan Disco, they also alleged that some agents of the firms were fraudsters.
A retired teacher, who resides at Ikorodu, Lagos, Mrs. Mary Adebola, 70, alleged that some agents in the area fleeced her of over N50,000, while she was trying to pay her bills, using the Point of Sales machine.
She said, unknown to her, the agent gave her another consumer’s receipt while her account was being debited. According to her, that happened to her for four months and she never observed until last month, when some staff of IE approached her at her residence and alerted her to her failure to offset her electricity bill, a development she said they admitted was unusual with the retired teacher.
“I almost fought them till I brought the receipts and confirmed they belonged to one Bola Ajibola. With that discovery, I was confused and felt sad because the staff thought I presented another person’s bill intentionally. One of them told me I had to pay up to avoid further embarrassment as I had no proof that the receipts were given to me by the agent; that it could have been picked from anywhere,” she lamented.
Another challenge is the registration fee, ranging between N6, 000 and N9, 000. Investigation revealed that in most cases, no receipt is issued for the fee and millions of electricity consumers across Ikorodu, Lagos, Agbado Station, Ogun (areas controlled by IE); Magboro, Ibafo, Mowe, Ogun (controlled by IBEDC) have been made to part with such amounts as part of the requirements for the issuance and installation of prepaid meters at their residences.
In Magboro, Ibafo, Makogi and Mowe, for instance, residents had to contribute money to buy transformers, cables and poles to enable the Discos to connect them to the grid. The Point also learnt that IBEDC compelled the residents to transfer the ownership of the equipment to the Disco before connecting them to the national grid.
The Chairman, Praise Chapel Community Development Association, Makogi, Magboro, Mr. Kayode Ogunmuyiwa, told The Point that it was disheartening and scandalous for the company to force them to transfer the asset to it and refuse to come to terms with the community.
He said, “If it were to be a public company, we would understand we are supporting the government, but being a private entity, it would be unfair for the company to compel us to buy the equipment and force us to transfer to them.
“At a point, we decided to shift a little by asking the Disco to deduct the cost of purchasing the equipment from our bills, but one of the managers flared up and walked out of the meeting, ranting that no one does that across the world. But is it done everywhere for people to buy tools for any company, free of charge, when it is not a Corporate Social Responsibility initiative? If anyone is to do CSR, it should be the company and not us, who are mainly retirees.”
Also, the Secretary, Bayeku-Igbogbo CDA, Mr. Kamar Salaudeen, reiterated the fact that the staff of Ikeja Disco had been fleecing residents in the last two years.
According to him, asking them to pay registration fee for pre-paid meters, without receipt, is an illegal act by any private or publicly owned company.
He said, “If the registration fee is not paid, they will not connect residents to the grid. Yet, this is in a community where we purchased the transformer, poles and cables by ourselves and we were arm-twisted to transfer the ownership to Ikeja Electric.
“It is fraudulent for IE to insist that the same community should pay registration fee before it gets connected to the same transformer. Aside from the registration fee, we are also forced to pay outrageous estimated bills and illegal reconnection charges.”

BLAME IMPORT DUTIES, BANKS FOR THE ANOMALIES – KADUNA DISCO
Meanwhile, the Head, Corporate Communications, Kaduna Electric, Mr. Abdulaziz Abdullahi, blamed the development on the increase in power allocation to consumers, high cost of procuring the meters abroad, import duties and inability to obtain loans from financial institutions.
Abdullahi told The Point, “The meters are not manufactured in Nigeria but abroad, and after buying, they need to be calibrated. The 50,000 meters we are presently installing in Sokoto, Kebbi and Kaduna cost about $25million
in 2016.
“It is difficult to get loans from banks, because when they see our books, they see that we are not doing well. As such, we cannot guarantee that we can meter our customers at a particular time. It is our wish that every customer be metered, but it is difficult. We urge customers to be patient.”

ALLEGATIONS ARE BASELESS, OTHER DISCOs ARGUE
However, the Business Manager, YEDCo, Alhaji Usman Wafta, said all the allegations against the company on estimated bills were baseless.
“Ours is just to distribute the allocation received. We don’t charge outside the law. We have a methodology of billing, based on the average number of people in the area. And we welcome complaints from customers that feel unfairly charged,” he said.
The Business Development and Relationship Officer (Sokoto), KAEDCO, Mr. Abubakar Hashim, also dismissed the allegation and argued that the firm “charges customers based on what they
consume.”
According to him, the firm uses what he called load-reading to know the monthly consumption of unmetered customers.

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