THE National Electricity Regulatory Commissions (NERC) recent declaration on illegal charges being foisted on consumers by the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) and its agents, has only reaffirmed what is already well known: the extortionist antics of PHCN and its officials. But NERC was only begging the question by its mere endorsement of a workshop communiqué after a session with the 11 PHCN distribution companies. As a regulatory agency, it should do better to protect consumers than grumbling about irregularities in PHCN operations. It must ensure compliance with best practices by the erring operators.Electricity consumers have had enough of raw deals from PHCN, the power supply monster. It is time consumers got a break from inefficient service delivery. NERC should try to make the best of the transition of PHCN into a privatized entity to secure optimum value for the consumers and for the companies to stay afloat. NERC had told beleaguered consumers that the meter maintenance fee being charged by the PHCN and its successor companies is illegal. Not only that, it declared that it was wrong to ask consumers to pay for the replacement of old meters with the new pre-paid ones. The reality is that electricity consumers have been paying illegally for the installation of new pre-paid meters to replace the old meters.NERC executive chairman Dr. Sam Amadi is right in his observations, but there are other fundamental problem areas. His agency has not addressed the short supply of transformers, which more often than not force needy communities to pay for the purchase and the installation. Transformer supply ordinarily should be free, but some unscrupulous PHCN officials arm-twist desperate communities to raise large sums for this. In bizarre cases, some communities even buy the equipment and still pay PHCN officials for the installation. This is also based on the understanding that the facility is being donated to PHCN.Bills on energy consumption most times are outrageous, often a subject of dispute between PHCN and its customers who would eventually still be forced to pay first before complaints are entertained. Such crazy bills, so tagged by consumers, usually are incongruous with the amount of electricity supplied, especially when rates are classified as estimated charges for certain reasons.For consumers generally, it has always been a no-win situation with regard to PHCN-customer relationship, given the seeming undue advantage the company enjoys through the provisions of the law establishing it. The NERC however has, until now, not effectively risen to the occasion to tackle these challenges faced by electricity consumers.It has been argued that the illegal meter maintenance fee, which has been in force for about two decades, was established as an intervention fund to assist the defunct National Electric Power Authority to meet its obligations in deploying meters. This is said to have been integrated into the revenue and payment operation as some distribution companies are yet to offset their liabilities to the National Prepayment Metering Programme.The big question is: if as the NERC chief executive said, the new Multi-Year-Tariff-Order (MYTO) has incorporated metering costs, why has the PHCN retained the meter maintenance fee We agree with Amadi that the practice is not transparent. That cost should be captured in the proposed major review of the MYTO. NERC has complained that some of the PHCN successor companies have failed to comply with some of its regulations. This is not encouraging enough. However, it is the duty of the regulatory authority to enforce compliance if it must be taken seriously.We advise NERC to go beyond the communiqué it signed because there are bigger challenges, another being the acute shortage of pre-paid meters, which would have adequately addressed the issue of bloated bills. PHCN has not disputed the claims in some quarters that it has ordered the stoppage of the supply and installation of the new pre-paid meters across the country for inexplicable reasons.If there are identified problems in the distribution, is it not PHCNs duty to review strategies for better operations This is especially as many consumers have shown preference for the new meter, since it places consumption control at their disposal. It seems for PHCN officials, this is bad business as it reduces their face-to-face interaction with consumers that they have always cheated. To resort to hoarding the meters is criminal.The NERC may therefore want to establish from the PHCN the following issues: why are the meters not available to interested consumers Two, why is the PHCN desperate to set revenue targets for its officials at a time when electricity supply in the country is scandalous, to say the least We say no to arbitrary targets. Three, why has the management failed to explain the hoarding of the pre-paid meters Four, why has PHCN always claimed ownership of meters it sells to consumers. Even where the new meters are supplied, there are complaints about their being defective. For instance, some pre-paid meters either do not run regularly or fail to reflect loaded units of energy, thereby placing consumers in a difficult position to recharge their cards at awkward times.We believe that by now, the reform issues in the industry ought to have been addressed. The privatization process should be fast-tracked to remove the PHCN totally from the apron strings of government. In the same vein, President Goodluck Jonathan has a daunting task before him to make electricity available to the people as he has consistently promised. It would be tragic if he failed to deliver on that promise, like his predecessors. The billions of dollars sunk into the project in years past have ironically left the people groaning further in darkness, raising questions of accountability.The kernel of the power sector reform, especially the power roadmap launched some months ago by the president should be to make life easier for the people. But then, in the absence of quality service in the industry, NERC has to learn to enforce its regulations to reduce the peoples misery.
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