Nigerian Electricity Regulator Moves to End Power Theft, Spells Out Penalties
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In a bold move to curb illegal access to electricity supply in the country, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has increased the penalty for customers tampering or bypassing their electricity meters.
The industry regulator ordered a publication stating that the culprits would be made to pay a penalty ranging from N300,000 N200,000, N150,000 and 100,000 depending on the type of meter.
While the commission described it as administrative fees, it said reconnection cost would be N50,000 and 10,000.
The order, which was signed by NERC’s Chairman and Commissioner, Legal, Licensing and compliance, Sanusi Garba and Dafe C. Akpeneye, respectively, said the order was to mitigate “Unauthorised access to electricity supply by addressing tampering and meter bypass and establish clear guidelines for the reconnection of unauthorised connections ensuring transparency and compliance.
“Any customer that gains unauthorised access to electricity through tampering or meter bypass will be reconnected upon payment of the administrative charges including meter replacement cost, which shall not exceed the sum of N100,000 for first time offender for Non-MD Single Phase while N150,000 for subsequent offence.”
It added that offenders on Non-MD Three Phase Residential meters will pay N200,000 for first offence while subsequent one would be N300,000.
It said first time offenders under Maximum Demand would pay an administrative cost of 450% of the customer’s last authorised recorded monthly consumption.
“Subsequent incidents of unauthorised access to electricity by tampering or bypassing an MD meter shall attract an administrative cost of 600% of the customer’s last authorised recorded monthly consumption.”
Similarly, customers on Non-MD would pay N10,000 for reconnection cost while MD customers would pay N50,000.
“A customer that gains unauthorised access to electricity through tampering or meter bypass shall in addition to paying for the reconnection costs and administrative charges shall be liable to pay for the Loss Revenue to the Distribution Company for the unaccounted consumption by paying back-bills.
“Distribution Companies shall back-bill customers who gain unauthorised access to electricity at the prevailing tariff of the customer for the established period of the unauthorised access.
“Distribution Companies shall promptly submit monthly reports to the commission detailing instances of unauthorised access”, the regulatory authority said.
