Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) installed 178,864 prepaid meters in Q2 of 2023, an increase of 3,586 compared to the 175,281 installed in Q1 of the same year.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) disclosed this in its Q2 2023 report.
Giving the breakdown of the installation, the Commission said 168,397 meters were installed under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) framework, while 9,302 meters were installed under the National Mass Metering Programme (NMMP) framework.
It mentioned that the vendor and DisCos-financed framework recorded 1,143 and 22-meter installations, respectively.
“The Commission expects DisCos to utilise any of the five-meter financing frameworks provided in the 2021 Meter Asset Provider and National Mass Metering Regulations to close their respective metering gaps.
“This serves as a safeguard for customers against exploitation due to the lack of metres,” the report said.
Additionally, the Commission stated that it had continued to issue monthly energy caps for all feeders in each DisCo.
“This sets the maximum amount of energy that may be billed to an unmetered customer for the respective month based on gross energy received by the DisCo and consumption by metered customers,” it stated.