The paradox of metering Nigeria
To combat the challenge of metering Nigeria’s over 170 million electricity consumers, smart metering systems would have to be included in the mix to check the scourge of estimated billing and unpaid electricity consumption.
While most of Nigerians are willing to pay the correct bill for their energy consumption, the electricity distribution companies are not providing them with sufficient meters because billing by a toss of a dice seems the preferred method. On the other hand, local meter manufacturing company say low patronage is threatening their existence.
This is the paradox of metering Nigeria. Except by a sleight of logic, the two positions cannot be harmonised.
Long used to a system where incompetence is excused as a fact of life, the Nigerian power sector was privatised in 2013 in an exercise that cost $3billion. While the privitisation of Nigeria’s telecommunication sector resulted in a successful outcome, the same cannot be said of the power sector privatization effort.
A myriad of factors have been blamed for this chief among them is unavailability of gas, weak transmission lines and critical power infrastructure. However, in recent times, estimated billings by power distribution companies have come to the front burner of national discourse since 2 MYTO came into effect on February 1, 2016 leading to an increase of over 40 percent in electricity tariff.
Babatunde Fashola at the 3rd monthly sectoral meeting of operators in the electricity industry held at Ugwuaji transmission station in Enugu last month, ordered power distribution companies to immediately supply meters to customers.
However, the problem is not that simple. Electricity distribution companies have to deal with prepaid customers who do not buy electricity in six months period partly due to lack of power supply but allegedly due to, in large part bypassing their meters. Power distribution companies do not have the resources to determine if their customers are not cheating.
Electricity distribution companies have a genuine fear that as more customers move to prepaid metering system it will increase the losses they experience as more people bypass the meters.
The only recourse is physical monitoring of residential and business premises, a method fraught with risks at worst and inadequate at best. The Ikeja Disco is now mandating customers to site prepaid meters on electric poles or high up the building to minimize the chances of customers tampering.
To address the challenge of lack of meter, the Electricity Meters Manufacturers Association of Nigeria, (EMMAN), announced recently that it was planning to increase its meter production capacity gradually from 25,000 to 50,000 monthly.
Muideen Ibrahim, executive secretary of EMMAN told News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) in Lagos that the gradual increment was to meet the country’s metering needs and nationwide coverage. He said the association had expressed its commitment to the successful implementation of the Federal Government’s presidential initiative on the metering scheme for Nigerians.
“The presidential initiative on the metering scheme for Nigerians is indeed a good step in the right direction. This will bring a lot of improvement to curbing the non-technical losses in the system and contribute immensely to the growth of the country’s GDP in the long run,” he said.
According to him, local meter manufacturers have resolved to ensure that their various factories work at full capacity to deliver on the country’s metering needs. “The ongoing metering project will bring about economic revolution and development as it will create job opportunities for unemployed Nigerians.
But improving local capacity in meter production alone does not fully address the challenge. These prepaid meters electricity distribution companies are rolling out has been in use in some African countries for the past six years. Though PHCN adopted the method as early as 2010, there is now strong pressure on the electricity distribution companies to make the meters available for Nigerians.
However, some African countries are rethinking this system. The failure of the pre-paying billing method to eliminate the risk of non-payment is forcing the Kenyan Power company to adopt a different approach. When it was adopted in 2009 the installation appeared to show promise when it reduced unpaid bills from Sh10 billion in 2010 to Sh8 billion in 2012.
The country is now adopting smart metering systems. Ben Chumo, managing director of Kenyan Power tells Kenyan Business Daily, “Smart meters will be linked to a central server and will always be communicating directly to us as the customer consumes electricity. So we will have accurate meter readings for every consumer at all times, eliminating the need to send meter readers,”
In its new plan, pre-paid meters would be relegated to rural areas, with the expected introduction of smart meters to curb electricity fraud and soaring meter reading costs.
Smart meter is an electronic device that records consumption of electric energy in intervals of an hour or less and communicates that information at least daily back to the utility for monitoring and billing. Smart meters enable two-way communication between the meter and the central system.
According to the UK government department of Energy and Climate Change, it has commissioned a new shared smart metering national infrastructure in 2016. In its publication on the systems, it noted smart metering equipment installed by energy suppliers will normally consist of a smart electricity meter, a smart gas meter, and a communications hub (which will typically sit on top of the electricity meter). Energy suppliers will offer all domestic customers an In-home Display at no upfront cost as part of the installation process.
Smart metering systems – Source: www.aeptexas.com
The In-home display will allow consumers to see what energy they are using and how much it is costing in near real time. The display can also show information about the amount of energy used in the past day, week, month and year. This, it says will help people to understand and control their energy consumption.
The system will also include a communications hub with two basic functions. Firstly it allows the smart meters and In-home Display (and other devices which consumers may wish to use) to communicate with each other over a Home Area Network, in a similar way to wireless computer networks (Wi-Fi).
Secondly it provides a link to the Wide Area Network which allows information to be sent to and from meters by energy suppliers, energy network operators and energy service companies.
A consumer’s energy supplier will communicate remotely with smart metering equipment to take meter readings, including on change of supplier or change of tenancy, as well as to update configuration and pricing.
To address Nigeria’s metering problem perhaps, smart metering should be included in the mix. It will eliminate the need to monitor meters to check tampering and will provide valuable data on energy usage.
However there are concerns about costs. Capital cost per meter including installation is an average of $221 in the United States and 71 pence in Britain spread over 5 to 10 years. There also the concerns of data protection as the providers have access to a wide variety of customer data.
Nigeria’s current situation clearly calls for a rethinking of the metering systems but more especially there would have to be power first.
ISAAC ANYAOGU