Electricity Distribution companies in the country have perfected plans to deploy meter bypass trackers on distribution networks to check the increasing activities of some individuals and groups who often attempt to evade payment of electricity bills by bypassing electricity meters.
The planned deployment of the technology may not be unconnected with the recent warnings from the National Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) that electricity consumers who bypass meters would be forced to pay N45, 000 as fine.
The Chief Executive Officer/Managing Director, Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Ernest Mupwaya who confirmed the development in a chat with Punch said
“On the issue of meter bypass, I don’t want to share (this), but we do have a technology to detect it. For example, all our large power customers, for the majority of them, we are monitoring them online using automatic meter reading facilities that we have installed.
“And every day, unfortunately, we are seeing meter bypass live and we are taking punitive interventions in terms of revealing them (defaulters) and surcharging them. So, for large power users, the monitoring is online. Let me just categorically say that they should not even attempt, it because they will be caught.”
He also said a new technology has been developed to address complaints by some consumers that some meters read too fast.
“Some customers complain that their meters are running too fast and as a result, we have got portable meters that can be used for testing when hooked up with existing meters. When this is done, within few minutes we can detect whether our meter is faulty or not.
“That equipment can also be used to make corrections where customers believe estimated billing is high. In such instances, we can put a meter there temporarily and it will give us information that will make us adjust the estimated billing. So it is equipment that can be used for various purposes.”
