Electricity customers must insist on tariff downgrade from DisCos for insufficient supply hours- NERC

Oredola Adeola

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has revealed that electricity customers who do not get their hours of supply are entitled to compensation by the DisCos through the lowering of tariff band.

Roland Achor, Principal Manager, Market Competition and Rates, NERC disclosed this at the NERC electricity consumers enlightenment and protection workshop for staff of the Federal Competition and Consumers Protection Council and the National Orientation Agency (NOA).

During a discussion about the need to downgrade customers’ tariff plans due to insufficient power supply, Anchor emphasized that there is a regulation by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) that ensures compensation for customers who experience a lack of supply. The compensation involves using the lower tariff band that the customer was supposed to be on.

The Principal Manager therefore charged the FCCPC and NOA to enlighten customers about the enforcement of the provisions of the regulations.

EnergyDay’s check showed that NERC’s regulation, known as the Service Reflective Tariff (SRT), sets the minimum supply hours for electricity consumers based on their tariff bands.

This means that customers who receive fewer than the specified number of hours of electricity per day are eligible for compensation and a downgrade to a lower tariff band.

EnergyDay further gathered that the aim of the re-designed tariffs, based on the SRT, is to ensure that customers who experience poor supply do not face tariff increases until the supply improves.

The methodology under the SRT is based on the availability of hours of supply to different customer classes across the value chain..

Overall, the NERC’s regulation ensures that customers who do not receive the expected quality and quantity of electricity supply are refunded and downgraded to a lower tariff band.

This compensation mechanism aims to provide fair treatment for customers and hold electricity distribution companies accountable for their service quality.

NERC in settling the distribution and end user tariff issue, is therefore expected to enforce the choice of the customer by regulating the tariff passed on to the end-user by the DisCos to ensure that their interests are protected.