By Adewale Sanyaolu Ayodele Adesina, lives in the Magodo area of Lagos and occupies a three-bedroom flat. Recently, he noticed that his monthly electricity bill had risen from N10,000 to N20,000, even without commensurate supply to justify the increase.
Ayodele was so furious that he had to contact a lawyer friend to sue the management of the electricity distribution company covering his neigbourhood. The legal practitioner advised him to write a protest letter to the Disco to correct the anomaly, but two months after, the problem had yet to abate.
Ayodele said he leaves home very early and returned around 10pm in the evening, while on weekends he attends lectures at the Pan Atlantic University for a Masters Programme.
But upon careful investigation, he discovered that his brother who lives with him, without his knowledge was involved in the business of sachet water, popularly called ‘pure water’, was using much of the energy that was available during the day, a development that was responsible for his huge electricity bills.
Besides, he discovered that the younger brother was also in the habit of switching on the three air conditioners at the same time, and the electrical bulbs that were not needed during day time.
The case of Ayodele is just one of the numerous across the country where energy wastage coupled with theft has become the order of the day. The recent disclosure by the Executive Director of Electricity Distributors Association of Nigeria (EDAN), Mr. Sunday Oduntan, that Ministries Departments and Agencies (MDAs) ,including Federal, State and Local Governments owe EDAN members about N93 billion in electricity debts is mind boggling.
Beyond the N93 billion power debt, Oduntan equally told Daily Sun, in a telephone discussion that over N100 billion is being owed EDAN by residential and industrial consumers, bringing the accumulated debt profile to N193billion.
Based on the foregoing, he said the Discos have recorded additional N300 billion in revenue shortfall, and that was still growing.
Beyond the challenge of the mounting debt bill, electricity consumers have constantly complained of being slammed with huge bills, which, most times they claimed was not their actual consumption.
But, stakeholders have blamed energy inefficiency for this development, which is partly responsible for the rising debt profile of electricity bills of MDAs, residential and industrial users, adding that Nigerians under the new electricity tariff structure may have no other choice than to change their energy consumption pattern.
Understanding energy efficiency
Under the new power tariff regime, which took effect February 1, 2016, electricity consumers in R2 class, said to be under residential, are expected to pay N24.30 per kilowatt in Abuja; Benin-N24.08; Enugu- N27.13; Ibadan–N23.09; Jos – N26.93; Kaduna – N27.36 and N28.05 (in single phase and three phases); Kano – N20.26 and N26.41; Ikeja – N21.30 and N21.80; Port Harcourt –N24.91; Eko- N24.00 and 25.79; Yola –N23.25 and N24.75 per kilowatt.
According to that development, residential customers under R2 class within Abuja Electricity Distribution Company will no longer pay N702.00 fixed charge every month; instead, their charge will increase by N9.60kwh.
But energy auditors, insist consumers can easily save between 5 and 10 percent of our energy consumption (and costs) by changing our behavior such as switching electrical equipment off at the mains rather than leaving it on standby, turning off lights when they’re not being used
Saving electrical energy will directly reflect to saving money so it is very necessary to understood what is paid per kilowatt hour, which has already been explained earlier under the new tariff regime
The major appliances in homes — refrigerators, clothes washers, dishwashers — account for a big chunk of monthly utility bill. And if refrigerator or washing machine is more than a decade old, one is spending a lot more on energy than is needed.
Today’s major appliances don’t hog energy the way older models do because they must meet minimum energy efficiency standards as prescribed by the International Standards Organisation (ISO). These standards have been tightened over the years, so any new appliance bought recently has to use less energy than the model being replaced. For instance, if you buy one of today’s most energy-efficient refrigerators, it will use less than half the energy of a model that’s 12 years old or older.
The Nigeria scenario
An energy expert and Chief Operating Officer, Powtech Power International Limited, Mr. Reginald Ifionu,said recently that if the electricity supply in the country is efficiently managed and utilised, Nigeria can save $1 billion from efficient use of energy.
Ifionu, said that it costs about $1 million to build a megawatt of electricity. “At the country’s current generating capacity of less than 4,000 megawatts, MW, and the ability of ES-25 to save energy by 25 percent, the country will be saving at least $1 billion adopting energy efficient devices,” he said.
“Energy bills are steeply rising and there is an urgency of usage of various energy conservation retrofits to save energy on different electrical equipment available at home.
The best technique available is to install ES-25 energy savers, which will reduce the energy bills up to 25 percent,” he added.
The way out
Senior Associate/Team Leader of the Energy Practice Group of Banwo Ighodalo and Associates, Mr. Ayodele Oni, explained that with increasing electricity tariffs, consumers now need to consider a more budget friendly energy consumption pattern
He advised consumers to consider more efficient usage of electricity by using compressed fluorescent lamps (CFLs) and light emitting diodes (LEDs) instead of the incandescent lamp. Movement sensing electricity systems which automatically switch off when no movement is detected should also be considered. Furthermore, attitudes generally need to change such that the culture of wastage is dispensed with.
The way to conserve energy is to but efficient electrical appliances because they use two to 10 times less electricity for the same functionality, and are mostly higher quality products that last longer than the less efficient ones. In short, efficient appliances save you lots of energy and money.
According to Michealbluejay. Com, a firm which specialises in offering advice on best way ways to conserve energy, consumers should look out for efficiency rating labels on appliances before buying.