The Abuja Electricity Distribution Plc (AEDC) on Monday flagged off a new phase of its mass metering project as part of its determination to achieve 100% metering of its customers and engender public confidence in its billing process.
A statement issued by the Manager, Media Relations, Ahmed Shekarau said under the new phase, AEDC in partnership with the Meron Consortium, would deploy 222,728 meters valued at about N10 billion for its customers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), Kogi, Nasarawa and Niger states.
The Managing Director/CEO of AEDC, Engr. Ernest Mupwaya said there were many benefits associated with metering for both the company meters its customers alike.
“For customers, metering gives them the assurance of fair, transparent and accurate billing and also serves as a useful tool for managing consumption and costs. To AEDC, metering equips us with intelligent data to ascertain areas of energy/revenue leakages which will strengthen our commercial vigilance activities to plug such leakages and improve our revenue collections”, he stressed.
Metering, the AEDC CEO further explained, represents one of the key areas of the Company’s strategic transformation programme geared towards aggressively reducing its average technical, commercial and collection (ATC&C) losses and enhancing its capabilities for exceptional service delivery and growth.
Engr. Mupwaya also expressed his appreciation for the support of PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) who were transaction advisers to AEDC and helped in running an open procurement process from which The Meron Consortium emerged as Preferred Bidders.
Also speaking at the event held at the AEDC corporate headquarters in Abuja, the Group Managing Director of The Meron Consortium, Engr. Emmanuel Ndubuisi, assured the AEDC’s management of timely delivery and installation of the meters, in line with the terms of its contract with the company.
According to him, “we appreciate the opportunity AEDC has given us through a transparent and competitive process; we’ll bring all our wealth of experience and expertise on board to ensure the success of this project because our goal is that ultimately, you (AEDC) will count on us as your preferred partner for all future metering projects”.
The consortium comprises of meter manufacturers, financiers, as well as the advisory services firms.