The Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC) has started the installation of 39, 000 smart meters in its operational states of Edo, Delta, Ondo and Ekiti free of charge.
The company’s Head of Corporate Affairs, Mr. Tayo Adekule, made this known, in Benin, on Tuesday.
He said the installation of the 39, 000 meters was the first step to ensuring that all the 800,000 paying customers of the company were metered within the shortest possible time.
Adekunle said out of the total number of the paying customers, 500,000 had already been metered, leaving a balance of about 300,000.
The BEDC head of corporate affairs said that out of the 39,000 meter being installed, Edo would get 12,000, Delta 12,000, Ondo 9,000 while Ekiti would get 6,000.
According to him, as at August 2016, over 60 per cent of our customers have already been metered, and in furtherance to this, we have started installing 39,000 meters in the four states.
“In Benin, we are presently installing meters in areas such as the Airport Road, Akpakpava, Igun Street and Oba palace areas.
“The essence of the company’s action is to arrest the incident of electricity theft and it has greater efficiency in sending data. It is also users’ friendly.
“With the smart meters, we can easily get information on pattern of electricity consumption of our customers from our system.”
The BEDC spokesman decried the high level of electricity theft and vandalism, adding that 5,000MW was needed to guarantee steady power supply in the four states.
He said that the four states were getting about 300MW per day; the company was doing its best to ensuring its customers got a minimum satisfaction of power supply through load shielding. (NAN)