Enugu----------------- The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company, EEDC, has revealed plans to begin implementation of the new service reflective electricity tariff from Wednesday, July 1.
Head of Corporste Communicaions, of the EEDC, Mr Emeka Ezeh, spoke through a statement in Enugu Sunday.
Ezeh said that the new tariff became necessary to improve the efficiency of EEDC in delivering quality service to its customers.
He said that the new tariff would equally ensure sustenance of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, in view of prevailing economic realities.
His words, "the prevailing economic realities are high rate of inflation and the depreciation of the naira, which has largely impacted the foreign exchange rate.
“This development is consistent with feedback received from customers during the various stakeholder consultations for extraordinary tariff review application held across Abia, Anambra, Ebonyi, Enugu and Imo states in February and March this year.
“The new tariff, which is service reflective, is designed to ensure that the company delivers improved services to customers; while ensuring that they are billed based on service quality.
“It is expected that the implementation of the new tariff will enable EEDC to execute most of the capital-intensive projects already outlined, geared toward strengthening and expanding its network and delivering the expected quality service to her customers.
“The new regime has given rise to changes in customer class categorization, as they are now represented in clusters, namely: Non-MD, MD1 and MD2.
“In the same vein, five distinctive bands (A-E) have been created to reflect the various service level and minimum hours of availability, a situation where a blanket/uniformed tariff no longer applies to all categories of customers.
“Those customers in “band A” are expected to enjoy supply for minimum of 20 hours and above; those in “band B” are expected to enjoy supply for minimum of 16 hours and above; and those in “band C” are expected to enjoy supply for minimum of 12 hours and above.
“Those customers in “band D” are expected to enjoy supply for minimum of eight hours and above, while those in “band E” are expected to enjoy supply for minimum of four hours.
“As a result of these changes and the service reflective nature of the new tariff, customers that enjoy premium services are expected to pay higher tariffs based on their guaranteed hours of availability and service quality.
`There won’t be any tariff increase for those customers that have low level of supply and lower service quality.
“Actual details of the new tariff will be communicated to customers in subsequent engagements once it is released by the regulator.
“EEDC, therefore, solicits the support of her customers at this point, and assures them of her unrelenting commitment to consistently improving the quality of services.’’
Ezeh also said that efforts would be made by EEDC to improve on the quality of its services to this category of customers so they can enjoy better services and be migrated to the premium class.
According to him, this was in line with the organisation’s strategy of implementing its Performance Improvement Plan, PIP, earlier submitted to its regulator, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission NERC.
Ezeh stressed that for optimal efficiency, EEDC would continue to work closely with its Meter Assets Providers, MAPs, to intensify and speed up on meter installation to unmetered customers within the network, as this would be done as part of the effort toward enhancing revenue.
He also said that customers not yet metered were encouraged to take advantage of the scheme and apply to be metered.
