The Management of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), says a new electricity tariff will take effect from July 1, as part of measures aimed at improving its performance level in power supply within its jurisdiction.
AEDC Managing Director, Ernest Mupwaya, announced this in a statement issued in Abuja on Friday.
He said the review which had become overdue even before the outbreak of COVID 19 became necessary in view of radical changes in the macro-economic indicators such as inflation and foreign exchange, adding that the new tariff is a total departure from the blanket and across board tariff structure used in the past in the sector.
According to him, the tariff is predicated on the level of service available to customers in different clusters, especially in terms of hours of availability of electricity supply to specific geography within its franchise area called the Service Reflective Tariff. He said five tariff bands have been created and listed the bands as Bands A – E.
“While Band A is for customers who have to 20 hours of supply and above, Band B is made up of customers who enjoy electricity supply for at least 16 hours but do so for less than 20 hours daily. Bands C & D are customers who enjoy electricity supply for a minimum of 12 hours but not up to 16 hours and a minimum of 8 hours but not up to 12 hours respectively. Band E are customers who receive electricity for less than eight hours”
Mupwaya further said that customers within Bands A – D will experience a marginal upward adjustment in the cost of electricity, while those in Band E will have their tariff frozen until the company could show an improvement in the level of service to the customers within the cluster.
“We have structured the new tariff regime in such a way that there can be fairness and equity both to the service provider and the customer. Embedded in the new tariff regime is an incentive for the service provider to speedily ramp up performance to 24 hours in all clusters. So that it can draw from the benefit of economics of scale associated with numbers, volume and other parameters within its geography”.
Mupwaya listed some of its achievements to include the sector leader in the metering of customers, installation of hi-tech technical equipment, and a robust commercial management system, as well as a multi-channel customer contact centre. He said that the company was prepared more than ever before to further raise the bar of performance in the sector.
He said that the electricity value chain – Gas Companies, Generation Company, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) and Distribution Companies could only improve where investment and recovery were at par, and the investor has opportunity for a marginal compensation for his investment.
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