NERC Bars DisCos From Billing Disconnected Customers

Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos)  have been barred by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission from billing already disconnected customers.

The ban is contained in a March 2023 document by NERC Chairman, Sanusi Garba which our reporter obtained yesterday.

In the document titled   “Customer Protection Regulation 2023,” the commission said that  DisCos can only bill customers when they are reconnected.

Recall that this is prevalent in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry  (NESI ) for DisCos to keep billing disconnected customers even when they did not use power as a result of disconnection.

The act has continued to lead to  protests and litigations against the DisCos by  aggrieved customers

But in the document, Garba  said, “Whenever a supply address has been disconnected for non-payment and a bill has been produced representing consumption at the time of disconnection, the Distribution Company shall not bill for any additional charges in respect of that supply address until after it has reconnected electricity supply to the address.”

He also said that a DisCo could, under special circumstances, send a customer a supplementary bill during the billing period.

He explained that the special circumstances could be when there is a  need to amend an earlier bill where a customer made a  request for correction.

His words: “While a review referred to in subsection (1) is ongoing,  the customer shall pay an amount equal to the average amount of the customer’s  bills at the current supply address over the previous twelve months, the amount shall equal  the average amount of the customer’s bills for the period that he has been a customer at the supply address.”

NERC also mandated every DisCo to prepare a Credit Management Policy on its approach to credit management.

The commission advised that the credit policies be filed with it for approval.

According to the regulator,   DisCos may request a credit-metered customer to deposit a sum calculated in accordance with these regulations as a security future for electricity bills.

NERC,  also said a DisCo might only request for security deposits from existing customers that have a recurring history of non-payment of bills.

It added that the security deposit that a DisCo could request from a  customer shall not exceed their average monthly consumption for a period of two months.

NERC noted that where it is established that a DisCo has not complied with its approved methodology for billing unmetered customers,  the company shall refund the excess charges to the customer at the next billing circle.

The regulator also directed that if a DisCo is notified by a customer during working hours that electricity supply to his premises had gone off, an authorised official from the Disco should visit the customer’s premises within 24 hours to determine the cause of the problem.

It said where the cause of the outage was a failure or defect with Disco’s equipment such as a fuse, the fuse shall be replaced within 24 hours of notification.   

– The Nation