Kaduna Disco pledges to replace obsolete meters

Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company says it would replace obsolete and faulty meters free of charge.

The company announced its readiness to begin the installation of 5,608 meters for customers on Band A feeders under the first phase of the Meter Acquisition Fund programme.

Disclosing this in a statement, the company stated that plans are also underway to replace faulty and obsolete meters as ordered by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.

It could be recalled that customers with obsolete meters that could not be updated would no longer be able to vend.

Our correspondent reported earlier that about three million customers might be moved into estimated billing due to their inability to upgrade their meters.

According to the Kaduna DisCo, the new meters would be provided to customers at no cost.

“The installation covers the metering gap on our Band A feeders. There are also plans to replace all faulty and obsolete meters on the selected feeder. The network upgrades along the meter deployment will also ensure that customers continue enjoying our services more efficiently,” the statement read partly.

The Head of Metering Projects, Abba Aliyu Maiborno, was quoted as saying that the MAF metering programme has the potential to significantly reduce challenges Kaduna Electric faces, such as aggregate technical, commercial, and collection.

Maiborno stated that Kaduna Electric’s metering team had finalised the Know Your Customer exercise on feeders identified for the installation to gather vital information for the success of the exercise.

He urged customers to cooperate with the teams by obliging them with required data.

The Federal Government, through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, introduced the Meter Acquisition Fund to reduce the metering gap and improve electricity service delivery across the country.

“The initiative, overseen by NERC, pools contributions from all electricity distribution companies into a central fund to procure and deploy meters at no cost to customers.

“The Meter Acquisition Fund initiative represents a significant step forward in addressing the nation’s metering challenges, promoting transparency, and delivering improved energy efficiency to customers,” the statement concluded.

The PUNCH reports that some other DisCos have also started making plans to distribute meters to their customers on Band A, while some said procurement is still ongoing.

The plan is to install about one million meters in the next few months as part of the strategies to close the seven million metering gap.