DisCo worker on duty.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission(NERC) says distribution companies (DisCos) can now disconnect consumers who have not paid their electricity bills for at least 12 days.
The statement can be found in the commission’s recently released “Customer Protection Regulations, 2023”.
According to the NERC release, “The payment date must be, at least, 10 days from the date of the delivery of the bill to the customer. Bills may be delivered physically to the customer’s premises or by some other electronic means, including text messages or electronic mail, as agreed with the customer.
“The period between the payment date and date of scheduled disconnection for nonpayment is not less than two working days after the payment date.”
For DisCos to disconnect, NERC added that they must also verify from their records that payment has not been made by the customer.
Also,a customer may be disconnected if the electricity connection is not authorised by the DisCo.
The release said in addition that “whenever a customer requests a distribution company to disconnect electricity supply to his premises, the distribution company shall disconnect the supply after confirming that the customer’s request will not impact on other customers in the premises that require continued supply”.
Also, the Distribution Company “shall ensure that it is able to monitor consumption to the premises of the customer that has requested a disconnection that was not effected due to the impact on other customers in the premises, to assess the customer’s consumption”.
Writing by Tersoo Nicholas; Editing by Tony Okerafor