Aba Power says metering customers will ensure transpetency

…Put total cost of the project to over ₦33bn

The management of Aba Power Limited Electric (APLE) an electricity distribution outfit (DISCO)in charge of the Aba Ringed Fence Area, has affirmed that the ongoing free smart meter roll out programme in Aba and its environs, would ensure transparency and integrity in its business operations.

Ugo Opiegbe, managing director, APLE, noted that customers always pay when it is self-evident that what they are billed is what they have consumed.

He said that customers, in contrast, are reluctant to pay for estimated bills, even when they are billed less than the actual consumption, noting that transparency and integrity have no replacement either in personal or business relationships.

Opiegbe, while addressing staff Wednesday, during a meeting, stated that the ongoing free mass meter rollout is a blessing to both Aba Power and its customers.

According to him, “More and more customers are coming daily to all our physical offices and online platforms from morning to night to express satisfaction and to pay their bills with greater enthusiasm”.

A manager, who prefers anoinimity told BusinessDay that the DISCOs revenue has increased to about 15%, even though the meters are free.

Read also: Aba Power is leading four firms to assemble smart meters in Aba

“What is so important”, stated the manager, “is not so much the increase in revenue as the satisfaction on the faces of customers, despite the general economic and social difficulties in the country.

Aba Power plans to install 20,000 smart meters every month and provide new smart meters to at least 100,000 customers in 9 of the 17 Local Government Areas in Abia State that make up the Aba Ring-fence Area before the end of the year.

The meters are installed feeder by feeder, with eight of the 30 feeders in the Aba Ring-fenced Area already provided meters “end-to-end”, according to Alfred Ategie,
the manager in-charge of the metering team, .

Currently, meter installation is ongoing on the Barracks and Abayi Feeders, which comprises Azikiwe Road, Milverton Road axis for Barracks Feeder.

“Even the total cost of metering all the customers by our partners which will cost over N33 billion, is free”, Ategie explained.

The meter rollout is implemented, by the Kayz Consortium of Nigeria, led by Prince Kalu, Eve Metering Company of China run by Soji Olagunji, a Nigerian, DESN and CHINT, both of China.