Respite for Sura market as CWG provides metering for electricity

CWG Plc, one of Nigeria’s pioneer Smart Meter providers, on behalf of the federal government has provided metering for over 1000 shops in SURA market in a bid to eliminate consumer’s complaints on estimated billing.

The firm alongside other stakeholders in the country’s power and energy sector, also joined the Nigerian vice president, Yemi Osinbajo in commissioning the 1.5megawatts SURA off-grid independent power project in Lagos, as part of its Energizing Economies Initiative (EEI), targeted at empowering the Small and Medium Scale (SME’s) businesses across the country.

“In this particular project, we have provided the metering infrastructures which consist of smart meters to the shops plus a close monitoring system so that the operators can monitor in real time how much power is being consumed by each person, they can see in real time the cash that is coming in, they can also see in real time how much power they are supplying, how much power is being paid for and how much is being consumed”, James Agaba, managing director/ CEO for the CWG Plc, said.

The Energizing Economies Initiative (EEI) is an initiative of the federal government of Nigeria that was launched on September 2017. It targets the Micro, Small, medium Enterprises (MSMEs) with the objective of supporting the rapid deployment of Off-grid decentralized electricity solutions that will provide clean and consistent power to economic clusters in Nigeria through private sector developers.

The initiative is being implemented by the Rural Electrification Agency (REA), which is an agency under the Ministry of Power, Works and housing. The aim of the EEI is to increase energy access and economic growth by assisting private sector developers to provide clean, reliable and affordable power to economic clusters such as markets, shopping complexes and agricultural/industrial clusters across Nigeria.

Agaba noted that the ‘Smart Metering Solution’ which works in the form of a connected mobile app for electricity consumers – both the Maximum Demand Customers (MDCs) and the Non-maximum Demand Customers (NDCs), was initiated to address the power challenges in Nigeria, initiated and designed a

“This Smart Metering Initiatives has the capacity to eliminate power theft, which has hitherto dwindled the fortune and revenue of the Power Distribution Companies (DISCOs)”, Agaba said. The CWG Smart Metering initiative is keyed to Government’s smart technology solutions driving smarter cities. The solution has a dashboard which helps the Power Distribution companies detect power theft, monitor and measure usage for improved efficiencies”.

He said the company has also developed various types of metres that will be well suited for the youthful population including those metres that has Wifi, and hot spot that when you put is in your house, the user will start getting internet services.

According to him, the solution is designed such that it alerts the power companies with the precise location a theft is occurring at in near–real time, not more than three minutes after it happens, without requiring large equipment deployment.

In June this year, The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) approved CWG alongside seven other firms to participate in the distribution and installation of prepaid meters.

This approval provided an opportunity for CWG to approach major DISCOs to be positioned as their registered Smart Metering vendor; under the Smart Utilities Sector of CWG’s operations.

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