Don't Miss


Home   >   Business   >   Industries   >   Energy   >   Power: NERC says consumers can question operators

Power: NERC says consumers can question operators

By on April 29, 2015

To effectively address complaints arising from electricity tariff setting, metering and billing by power firms, consumers must be organised and should challenge the operators in the sector, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has said.

It said there was the need to have a consumer advocacy organisation that could easily build technical and political capability to effectively challenge other organised interests in the electricity market.

The Chairman, NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, said this on Monday in Abuja during the inaugural meeting of the Nigerian Electricity Consumer Advocacy Network.

He stated that in spite of the noble intent and progressive actions of the commission, the outcomes of its endeavours were still not fair to the consumers, stressing that “until consumers are organised and able to contend against the operators, the democracy bargain in the Nigerian electricity market will remain deficient.”

Amadi said, “Organised consumer advocacy is not just focusing on challenging operators on tariff setting and such other commercial activities like metering and billing. It should also step up as a major contributor to big debates about building smart grid, clean energy, privatisation and modernisation of the electricity grid.

“It should also be involved in debate about the constitutional framework for energy policy in Nigeria.”

He stated that consumers needed to be more engaged and eloquent in the deliberation about the future of electricity in the country.

“There is a strong case to incorporate the consumers as part of the decision makers in the electricity market. This is the reason we are proposing the setup of the NECAN,” Amadi said.

He noted that one of the observable gaps in the current electricity market in the country was the absence of knowledgeable, credible and broad-based advocacy for the consumers.

The NERC boss said the consumer voice was under-represented in the emergent electricity market.

He added that the reason for this was because individual consumers and groups were “too dispersed and too fragmented, and their levels of engagement too superficial, too adversarial and too episodic to have the desired impact on outcomes in the sector.”

 

[Punch]