The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has directed Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) to refund over one million customers in Southeastern Nigeria who were overbilled between January and September 2023.
The refund will be credited to customers’ accounts in the February 2024 billing cycle, based on NERC’s assessment.
The regulator expressed concern over EEDC’s persistent non-compliance with estimated billing caps, leading to customer dissatisfaction, reduced revenue, and liquidity issues in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
According to NERC’s Order No. 2024/006, EEDC overbilled customers by N11,866,263,420.31 during the specified period.
“Upon completion of the review, the commission issued an RD stipulating a 14-day compliance deadline which expired in August 2023.
“The RD also notified EEDC that further regulatory actions shall be taken in accordance with the KPI Order for subsequent non-compliance. The continuous failure of EEDC to adhere to the commission’s monthly caps for estimated billing has led to significant over-billing of customers,” the NERC noted.
The monthly over-billings were analysed as N203,375 customers over-billed N1,933,495,624 in September; 188,298 customers were over-billed N1,745,269,356 in August, while 169,867 customers were over-billed N1,700,205,554 in July, among others.
The commission ordered as follows: “At the billing cycle for energy consumed in February 2024, EEDC shall reconcile the accounts and issue credit adjustments for all customers that were over-billed between January-September 2023 based on the Commission’s assessment as contained in Schedule 1.
“EEDC shall submit its billing data for the February 2024 cycle (and any other relevant information) to the Commission as evidence of compliance with the provisions of section 11(A)(6) of this Order, no later than the 31st of March 2024.
“EEDC shall publish, in 2 (two) National dailies, citing the provisions of this Order, the list of credit adjustment beneficiaries (follow the sample contained in Schedule 1), and the same concurrently posted on its website, not later than the 31st of March 2024.”
To forestall further non-compliance, the NERC ordered a deduction of N1,186,626,342, which is equivalent to 10% of the naira value of the total over-billing for the period January – September 2023, to be applied to EEDC’s annual OpEx over a rolling 12-month period during the next tariff review.
Notwithstanding the provisions of section 11(B)(6), and pursuant to the provision of section 34(2)(F) of the EA 2023, the Commission warned that it may deduct a greater percentage of the total over-billing from EEDC’s admin OPEX where non-compliance with capping Orders persists.
