The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has announced deregulation for metres deployed to electricity consumers under the Metre Asset Providers Scheme (MAPs).
Chronicle NG reports that Nigerians will have to pay more to get electricity metres at the price determined by MAPs.
Sanusi Garba, the Chairman of NERC, and Dafe Akpeneye, the Commissioner of Legal, Licensing, and Compliance, signed an order disclosing this on Monday.
The Commission stated that this will enable end-use electricity customers to acquire metres from MAPs of their choice based on competitive open market prices.
The implication is that customers paying CAP prices of N81,975.16 and N143,836.16 for single and three-phase metres, respectively, will have to pay more at a price determined by the metre providers.
“The cost of metres deployed under the MAP scheme is hereby deregulated to enable end-use customers to acquire metres from MAPs of their choice based on competitive open market prices determined from transparent bidding frameworks,” the Commission stated.
“All MAP permit holders are subsequently eligible to provide services and transact for the provision of metres and metering services with any DisCo in the Federal Republic of Nigeria with their existing permit.
“The lifting of the restriction on permitting to operate in all DisCos is subject to the mandatory requirement for MAPs to comply with the associated Disco-specific requirements/specifications.
“All DisCos shall ensure the effective and seamless integration of smart metres deployed by MAPs with DisCo’s head-end systems and metre data management systems,” it added.
The development comes weeks after NERC okayed an over 200 percent tariff hike for customers getting 20 hours of power supply.
