The Management of BEDC Electricity Plc (BEDC) says it has commencedthe implementation of a Service–Based Tariff approved for all distribution companies (Discos) in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) with an assurance that there would be continuous improvement in the quality of service delivery offered customers.
“BEDC assures customers of its commitment to rapid improvement in service quality for those customers who currently receive low and poor service and subsequently graduate them to appropriate bands upon service improvement” the company stated in a statement to newsmen in Benin.
BEDC clarified that while customers in its franchise areas of Delta, Edo, Ekiti and Ondo state have been grouped into various bands/ clusters on hours of supply and using number of hours of daily availability as measure to determine payable rates, only those who enjoy stable electricity for 12 hours minimum; accounting for about 30 percent of the total customer base will pay the new rate for now.
The company said the strengthening of its Customer Care centers to improve responses to complaints and acceleration of metering by Meter Asset Providers (MAP) were cardinal objectives, while disclosing that as part of customer care initiatives, BEDC would be recruiting about 100 telemarketers and customer care agents to boost service delivery.
“We are also collaborating and working with the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), our source of partners to provide the technical improvement in areas where we have interface challenges and constraints in order to ensure that location with lower than 12 hours daily power availability witness rapid improvements within next year, “BEDC said.
It stated that under its performance improvement plan, it has come up with additional modalities to reduce the frequency of power interruptions in customer residences, hinting that this includes; quicker response to faults clearing; preventive maintenance schedule, construction of new 33kv and 11kv overloaded feeders and installation of new power and distribution Substations to relief overloaded ones, among others.
To address power supply shortfall from the national grid, BEDC disclosed that it had signed Memorandum of Understanding (MOUs) with two generation companies to generate 100MW and 30MW respectively but due to the previous tariff rate they could not start the construction.
“Recently, BEDC advertised on embedded power generation in which over 30 generating firms expressed interest and to deliver up to 800MW. This can materialize faster especially with our proposed Performance Improvement Plan which will allow for increased Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) spend on network infrastructure, automation and ICT backbone to ensure system and network reliability”, the company said further.
On metering, BEDC promised to further revitalize its Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme by injecting a compulsory approach that would ensure the entire cost of metering customers will be configured in their account as installment payment for those that could not afford full payment at once.
