By: OrePulse

Nigeria's electricity regulator has ordered the country's power distribution companies to compensate customers who are disconnected from the grid without justification, awarding energy credits equal to three months of average electricity consumption for every day a customer is left without supply.

Because the credit is pegged to each household's own average usage rather than a flat, uniform amount, the size of the payout will vary from one customer to another depending on how much electricity they typically consume.

The order, issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), adds new consumer-protection and metering obligations for Nigeria's distribution companies, known as DisCos. The rules affect how the utilities manage disconnections, billing disputes and the rollout of electricity meters across the areas they serve, and are likely to add to the companies' compliance costs.

NERC said DisCos must fix or swap out malfunctioning meters inside a 48-hour window once a customer reports a problem. The regulator also said distributors are barred from charging reconnection fees to customers whose service was cut off without proper due process.

According to the commission, the new requirements are intended to strengthen protections for electricity customers, build greater public awareness of consumer rights, and push DisCos toward fuller compliance with the rules that already govern the sector. NERC said the directives will also function as a reference for settling disputes that arise between distribution companies and the customers they bill.

Separate provisions address Nigeria's Meter Asset Provider program, under which a customer can pay the full cost of a prepaid meter upfront rather than wait for one to be supplied through other channels. NERC said distributors must complete installation of those meters within 10 days of receiving full payment from the customer.

Customers who pay for their meters under that arrangement are to be reimbursed through energy credits spread across 120 months, the commission said. NERC specified that those credits cannot be applied to offset any outstanding debt the customer already owes their distribution company, meaning the reimbursement must be delivered separately from any existing account balance.

The commission also addressed meters supplied through two other initiatives, the Meter Acquisition Fund and the Distribution Sector Recovery Programme. NERC said meters issued under either program must be installed at no cost to the customer, and that any customer who is billed for one of these meters is entitled to a full refund.

Taken together, the directives touch all three of the channels NERC cited through which Nigerian customers obtain electricity meters: direct upfront purchase under the Meter Asset Provider program, and the two other schemes, the Meter Acquisition Fund and the Distribution Sector Recovery Programme.

NERC's chairman is Dr. Musiliu Oseni. The commission did not specify a date by which Nigeria's distribution companies must begin complying with the new requirements.