Premium electricity consumers lament high tariff as outage persists

Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu

Since April 3, when the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission announced the removal of the subsidy on the electricity consumed by Band A customers, Nigerians have continued to raise their voices against the policy, as power outages persist in the country.

According to the NERC, the electricity tariff for Band A customers was revised upward from N68 per kilowatt-hour to N255/KWh. Other customers in Band E to E were reportedly not affected by the tariff hike.

One kilowatt-hour is the amount of energy consumed by a 1,000-watt appliance in an hour. For instance, a 100-watt light bulb that is kept running for 10 hours would consume 1 kWh of energy.

After releasing the 2024 Supplementary Multi-Year Tariff Order, the NERC directed the 11 distribution companies to release their lists of Band A customers, who must get at least a 20-hour supply daily.

The regulator and the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, threatened to sanction distribution companies that fail to supply Band A customers with 20 hours of electricity.

The DisCos were also mandated to inform customers whenever they failed to meet the required minimum service level.

NERC said that where a DisCo failed to deliver on the committed level of service on a Band A feeder for two consecutive days, the DisCo should, by 10 am the next day, publish on its website an explanation of the reasons for the failure and update the affected customers on the timeline for restoration of service to the committed level.

It stated that if a customer’s service level improved to at least 20 hours, they should be upgraded from lower service bands to Band A, adding that if the DisCo failed to meet the committed service level to a Band A feeder for seven consecutive days, the feeder would be downgraded to the recorded level of supply by the applicable framework.

Immediately after the announcement was made, the DisCos wasted no time in implementing the new tariff order, transitioning to a cost-reflective tariff effective April 1. Some DisCos were also accused of wrongly billing Band B customers as Band A, blaming technical glitches.

There were hues and cries from Nigerians. Individuals, civil society organisations, top politicians, and netizens condemned the hike in the tariffs payable by Band A customers. Electricity employees also threatened to down tools, but the government was adamant on its decision, which it said would save the power sector from further collapse.

While appearing before the Senate Committee on Power at an investigative hearing over the tariff hike last week Monday, the power minister warned that there would be a total blackout in the country in the next three months if the electricity tariff hike was not implemented.

Adelabu stated: “The entire sector will be grounded if we don’t increase the tariff. With what we have now for the next three months, the entire country will be in darkness if we don’t increase tariffs. The increment will catapult us to the next level. We are also Nigerians; we are also feeling the impact.”

However, Nigerians are feeling the impact of the tariff hike more, as they struggle with the rising cost of living in the country.

An electricity consumer, Nworgu Chukwuma, said, “This categorisation in bands is the most draconian policy ever. You practically stopped supplying power to others, not on Band A. The unmetered are still receiving huge bills, even without a power supply. Those scrambling for prepaid meters can’t get them. This sector is still a mess.”

Corroborating this, @EjetavwoB stated on social media, “Since this new tariff regime on April 1 for Band A customers, it is clear that no DisCo has been able to meet up supply to this less than 1 per cent of Band A customers. The fact remains that DisCos have been pushing all the electricity away from other band users but still cannot meet up.”

Another X user, @darrex4rel, called out the NERC, saying, “Before the development of this Band A tariff increase, we used to get at least 12 hours of power supply, but now, we beg to see power in two days. They now divert all power to Band A customers. Is this the actual aim?”

Meanwhile, the President of the National Union of Electricity Employees, Adebiyi Adeyeye, said in an interview with our correspondent that the DisCos had been asking its members to go to the public “to collect a 20-hour tariff from people that are not even experiencing a four-hour supply of electricity”.

He worried, “There is no way there won’t be crises between our staff and those customers.”