ELECTRICITY CONSUMERS LODGED 109,048 COMPLAINTS IN THREE MONTHS – NERC

Electricity customers to power distribution companies lodged 109,048 complaints in the third quarter of 2017. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission said this on Tuesday.

Noting that the figure translated to an average of 1,185 complaints per day, NERC said 76 per cent were resolved.

“Specifically, billing and metering constitute major concerns for electricity customers in Nigeria. This accounts for 60 per cent (65,428) of the total complaints received during the quarter under review.” It stated this in its latest quarterly report released on Tuesday.

The commission said the interruption of supply accounted for 21 per cent of the total customer complaints during the quarter. It implies that one in every five customers was unsatisfied with the quality of supply from the grid.

The regulator said it had continued to monitor the complaint-handling and resolution process adopted by the Discos. In addition, it had on a continuous basis monitored the operation of its Forum Offices. They set up the office “to adjudicate on consumers’ complaints. Because the customer care unit of the responsible Discos did not adequately resolve the complaint to customers’ satisfaction.

The commission established a total of 20 Forum Offices. The strategic plan includes several regulatory initiatives towards addressing the issues that are of serious concern to the consumers. The issues may include metering and quality of service.

According to the report, the Forum Offices perform the commission’s quasi-judiciary functions in redressing customers and operators’ unresolved disputes. The Forum Offices nationwide conducted about 40 hearings per quarter. They did this based on the petitions received and an average of 547 cases heard per quarter.

Meanwhile, NERC said it had no new cases of litigations in the third quarter of 2017. It, however, continued with 14 cases earlier reported in the first quarter which had remained unresolved.

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