Suicidal Mistakes of Power Distribution Companies

Substandard Power Grid. Source: Seaart.

I connected to the national grid in 2014. I was on estimated billing. Eventually, my meter came in 2017. I noticed I needed 32 units of electricity every month. I kept adding the gadgets I needed to live a cosy life. My consumption rose to about 90 units a month. With the current categorized billing tariff that puts me on Band A, I have to pay about twenty thousand naira every month.  I am law-abiding. So, I have accepted it, despite the tariff digging a huge hole in my pocket.

Now, though, I coil and boil when I see neighbours using all manner of gadgets and paying five times less than I pay because they are on estimated billings. The feeling I get is that I am paying for the neighbours who don’t have meters. This is the first suicidal mistake of the power distribution companies.

When power consumers started getting categorized into bands so that consumers on Band A pay a thousand naira for just 4.4 units of electricity, it was on the condition that the distribution companies supply at least 20 hours of electricity a day. Should the distribution company fail to live up to the contract, there should be an automatic reversal to the old status. The distribution companies lived up to the agreement for a couple of months. Then the national grid started experiencing failures lasting for weeks. Yet, there hasn’t been any reversal of the tariff as was agreed. The failure to live up to terms of an agreement is suicidal mistake number two.

It is the duty of power distribution companies to take electric power to communities –they are the distribution companies. That is never done. Power consumers by poles and cables and still pay staff of power distribution companies for installations. It also means that the companies are not interested in improving on their operations. This is suicidal mistake number three.

Despite the huge profits power distribution companies declare (over a trillion naira by the end of 2023), they are still not interested in improving working conditions for their staff. The offices look very filthy and unbefitting for humans. Salaries are still extremely poor with the workers not being able to pay bills. The result is that the staff have joined hands with defrauded consumers and directives from the top don’t ever sink down to the bottom where it is intended. The consumers prefer to pay field staff so they get soft landings. Refusing to improve staff welfare in the midst of plenty is the most suicidal mistake of the distribution companies.

Proverb 15 verse 27 says: he that is greedy of gain troubleth his own house.