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Yola Disco Has Demonstrated That 'Eligible Customer Policy' Can Work - Fashola

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Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Mr. Babatunde Fashola, has revealed that Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC), has become the first company to engage a consumer on the eligible customer policy.

He revealed this at the May edition of the monthly power forum with players in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), which was held in Yola, the Adamawa state capital.

"For the DisCos who still doubt the possibility of eligible customer policy, Yola DisCo and Adama Beverage now show you that it is not about anybody trying to take the big customers, it is about you having a redefined relationship with your big customers,” Fashola said.

In response to the shortfall in payments made by the distribution companies to power generation companies, Fashola had on the 15th of May 2017 activated the Eligible Customer Policy in accordance with section 27 of the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act-2005.

The regulation allows end-users who consume a minimum of two megawatts a month to buy power from operators across the NESI chain, such as the generation, transmission and distribution companies.

While encouraging the discos to see these class of customers as partners and not as competitors, the Minister said his ministry has put up bids for Original Equipment Manufacturers (OEM), to help evacuate 2,000 MW of electricity stranded on the grid: "On the federal government intervention on distribution expansion which we resolved at the FEC that in order to support infrastructure of the DisCos and help deliver the 2,000MW that is constrained by distribution, adverts asking for quotations from OEM have been published, we are now waiting for responses.”

Fashola also took out time to admonish the transmission and distribution sub-sectors on the need to be responsive in dealing with faults that may arise from damages caused by rainfall.

He directed the operators to inform their customers on time of glitches and dispatch a maintenance team to assess and fix issues.

Fashola told customers to report such faults to the companies.

Mustapha Umara, Managing Director of YEDC, also chipped in the fact that his company had increased revenue collection by 200 percent.

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Energy