Umuahia – Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC), will install pre-paid meters in the residence of its customers in the South-East at the end of the ongoing Geographical Information System (GIS) enumeration.
Mr Tope Borishade, EEDC Deputy Managing Director, made the announcement on Wednesday in Umuahia during EEDC-customers consultative forum.
He said the enumeration would help the company to ascertain specific locations for the pre-paid meters.
“The reason the pre-paid meters are not yet installed is because we are looking at the past pre-paid metering.
“We are doing studies and analysis so that we install the pre-paid meters in a manner that is much better than the past pre-paid metering.
“What we are doing now is the GIS-based studies, which will capture all the buildings in the licensed areas,’’ he said.
Borishade said the company was making conscious efforts to avoid some of the pitfalls that undermined past pre-paid metering in some parts of the country.
“We are making sure that we do something better than what was done in the past to enable use monitor the facility and ensure that we are not easily bypassed,’’ he said.
He said that at the end of enumeration, the company would roll out the smart and non-smart meters for its non-Maximum Demand (MD) customers.
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Borishade said the pre-paid meters are currently undergoing testing and certification, preparatory to their installation.
He said that plans were underway to phase out bulk-billing inherited by EEDC.
“Our plan is to make sure that all our customers are given their personal meters,’’ he said.
Electricity consumers at the forum took turns to enumerate their problems, ranging from estimated billing to delay in the company’s response to complaints.
They decried indiscriminate billing of customers even when there was no supply due to major faults or disconnection.
Borishade assured them that their complaints would be looked into, saying the company was determined to ensure improved service delivery. (NAN)
