TheCable

James Momoh, chairman of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), says he expects the country’s present metering gap of five million to be closed in next three years.

Speaking at the maiden graduation ceremony of the MOMAS Electricity Meters Manufacturing Company (MEMMCOL) metering school in Ogun state, the NERC chairman said the metering gap as of April was about 5,046,906 out of 8,840,801 registered customers.

Represented by Shittu Shuaib, NERC’s deputy general manager of consumer affairs, Momoh commended the company for setting up the metering school to provide a pool of well trained professionals for the metering sub-sector of the power sector.

The MEMMCOL metering school graduated its first set of 38 certified meter installers.

“Metering is of great concern to the commission and the Federal Government. In the light of this, the commission has instituted measure to accelerate metering through regulatory measures such as MAP regulation of 2018,” Shuaib said.

“Data available to the commission indicates that the present metering gap in Nigeria as at April 2019, is about 5,046,906 when compared to total consumer of 8,840,801, representing 57 per cent deficit in metering. This is a challenge and a marvelous opportunity. It is expected that the present metering gap would be closed within the next three years with the effective implementation of the DisCos meter roll out plan under MAP scheme.”

The commission had issued permits to meter asset providers (MAPs) to begin the roll out of new meters by May 1.

Speaking at the event, Kola Balogun, MEMMCOl chairman, said the company is committed to addressing the challenges confronting manpower deficiencies in the nation’s downstream electricity sector values chains.