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The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) has appealed to electricity consumers in the South-East region of Nigeria to support its efforts at providing efficient service in the area.
This is as Emeka Eze, public relations manager of the DISCO, decried the level of vandalism on its installations, which he said was affecting its services in most parts of the region.
Eze in a telephone interview with BDSUNDAY, alleged that people are sabotaging their efforts at providing efficient service to consumers.
According to him, “They are vandalising our installations, bypassing meters and stealing energy and this is posing a whole lot of challenges to us and also taking us back.”
He however, stated that the firm has so far committed N10 billion in its pre-paid metering project, stressing that EEDC is committed to ensuring that all of its consumers get meters.
Affirming the huge metering gap in the region, Eze noted that EEDC inherited over 700,000 unmetered customers, based on the data they gathered at the time they took over from the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).
He explained that the firm was currently carrying out enumeration exercise of its network to get the actual figure of their customers and the installations that are serving them, an exercise he noted would help the firm to be more efficient and serve its customers better.
He appealed to electricity consumers in Aba, who have applied for pre-paid meters and are yet to get, to be patient, as the installation team is working hard to deploy meters to every house in the region.
“It is not only Aba that is lacking pre-paid meters. Metering a customer takes a process and that is one thing that I will want customers to understand.
“There is no way everybody can get meter at the same time. Everybody is crying, Aba is saying they don’t have pre-paid meters, Enugu residents are saying they need meters, likewise Anambra residents, but people are being metered in Aba, Enugu and Anambra States.
“The metering gap is wide, so even if we deploy all the meters we have in stock now, everybody will not get meters. So, it is a gradual thing and it is something that we are doing consciously,” he said.
He however, urged consumers, who are yet to apply for the prepaid meters to do so immediately. We know that some people applied a month ago, but that does not mean they will not get. It is a function of where our team of engineers is working at the moment.
GODFREY OFURUM, Aba
