Mr. Adekunle Tayo is the Head, Corporate Affairs, Benin Electricity Distribution Company Plc. In this interview with ALEX OGWEMHO, he disclosed the factors responsible for the epileptic power witnessed in the region, along with the scarcity of pre-paid meters and complaints over high estimated billings.
Irregular power supply is gradually becoming synonymous with most of the electricity distribution companies. What are the major challenges militating against BEDC’s brand at present, and what efforts is the management making to tackle them?
Well, the first major issue we are facing as a distribution company is the fact that there is low payment culture on the part of the customers and in such manner, it affects the revenue collection of the company.
The other challenges are the issues of insufficient capital expenditure available to us as a distribution company; that makes it difficult for us to execute plans as envisaged.
Another area is the issue of unstable and inadequate power generation as most people are presently facing. The rule of turn says for every one million population there must be corresponding load megawatts of the electricity that will serve that population.
However, our case is not safe, it is such that in the population of over 160 million Nigerians, what we have guaranteed up to date still remain 5000 megawatts and presently we are below far 4000 megawatts. And for us at BEDC, we are only entitled to 9 per cent of whatever is generated on daily basis while we serve four states in federation.
And it is this 9 per cent that we share among Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti States respectively, while it is mandatory in our part that we must be providing our customers regular power supply.
What efforts do you make to engage your consumers regarding epileptic power generation?
We always sensitise our customers on what is obtainable in the sector. We hold town meetings with them, we normally have customers’ forum and engagement session with them. Our corporate affairs department goes on radio to create awareness on talk-shows, about our generation in the power sector.
Recently, our management put together, a Load-Schedule Management Roaster, which was published in national dailies several times for some months, to create awareness.
The Load -Schedule Management Roaster is to assist the customers know and predict when power supply will be available and thereby plan their own activity around that schedule.
Your consumers are complaining of increasing rate of ‘Estimated Billings’, especially those without pre-paid or analogue meters. What is BEDC doing to solve this problem?
As long as we sympathise with the categories of our esteemed customers, we also let them understand that ‘Estimated Billings’ is the way out of a scenario whereby customers, not having meters, are disconnected from our network.
In making things suitable for the customer, BEDC has put in place, a robust Customer Complaint Mechanism, to also address the issue of estimated billing. If the customer has a complaint relating to that issue, he or she is expected to approach the nearest BEDC office in his/her own location and lodge a complaint.
At the centre, a Customer Complaint Unit officer will avail the customer with a billing calculator.
This billing calculator contains a possible list of what a resident can possibly have as electrical appliances and the voltage each of these appliances consum. The customer will tick the appliance available to him or her and proceed and check the feeder services in that area.
Whatever is the tariff, we will use it to multiply the number of appliances and the voltage and whatever we get at the end of this tabulation is the customer’s bill for that period, under review.
If the customer is not satisfied, we carry out inspection in his or her premises to cite those appliances physically to confirm claims. We have resolved so many cases of estimated billings through this avenue.
How do you curb meter by-pass, which contributes to high estimated bills of ignorant consumers?
This also contributes to our huge loss. We have law enforcement agents, who go out to monitor the network for such abnormalities and if a customer is caught committing such an offence, he or she will be charged with causing loss of revenue and will automatically be disconnected.
What steps have you taken to prevent further vandalisation of transformers?
The communities have been very supportive to us in this area, in the sense that, they even apprehend some vandals in Edo and Delta States on different occasions. Some of them have been sentenced to prison terms.
At Okhoro, inside Benin metropolis, a person was apprehended and was given serious beating by the youths in that community. The Nigeria police and Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps whose jobs is to secure critical public property have been very helpful also in this aspect.
