The Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) has called for the use of cost-reflective tariffs to enable distribution companies to make commensurate gains on their investments.
Mrs Busolami Tunwase, the IBEDC Media Officer, gave the advice in Ibadan on Thursday.
“What the DISCOs are clamouring for, right now, is to have a cost-reflective tariff; like you know what you buy is not what you sell.
“So, until there is a cost-reflective tariff, energy supply won’t be a smooth sailing business trip for anyone in the power sector,” Tunwase said.
She also said that payment for electricity consumed by consumers had been a big issue.
“People don’t want to pay for the energy they have used,’’ she claimed.
Tunwase advised the Federal Government to explore the alternative source of energy generation to solve the problem of power outages.
She said the country should not depend solely on gas as its source of energy generation, but should explore other options to boost the power sector.
“We don’t need to depend on gas.
“Although Nigeria produces gas, there are lots of issues affecting this, such as pipeline vandalism.
“We need to explore other means of energy source in place of gas,’’ she said.
Tunwase calls for improvement in energy transmission in the country.
“Even what is generated cannot be pushed because of dilapidated infrastructure; this is critical and it needs an urgent solution.
“There are quite lots of challenges such as losses along with the transmission, commercial and technical.
“Technical losses in terms of transmission point is a major challenge,’’ she said.
The media officer highlighted other problems facing DISCOs as energy theft, claiming that customers bypass and tampering with their meters.
She also cited inconsistency in government policies as another challenge.
“When customers tampered with their meter and it does not read accurately, we cannot bill them for what is not read accurately.
“But they forget that for every energy that is sold to IBEDC it is also metered, so if customers lied that the company still has to pay for the energy it was supplied.’’
