The Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) has given the assurance that the company would not subject any of its customers in its obsolete standalone pre-paid meters in the South-East to estimated billing.

EEDC’s Head of Communication, Mr. Emeka Ezeh, gave the assurance in a statement made available to newsmen in Enugu on Sunday.

Ezeh noted that the exercise to replace the obsolete standalone pre-paid meters in the South-East states of Enugu, Anambra and Imo states was principally for efficiency and better customer experience.

According to him, it was necessitated by the recent upgrade of EEDC’s billing system which has made it increasingly difficult to provide technical support for the few customers using the obsolete standalone pre-paid meters.

“EEDC is denying purported allegation that its discontinuation of the use of obsolete standalone pre-paid meters in its network and swapping it with the new smart pre-paid meters is a ploy to take the affected customers back to estimated billing.

“EEDC maintains that the migration exercise, which is principally for efficiency and better customer experience, was necessitated by recent upgrade of its billing system which has made it increasingly difficult to provide technical support for the few customers using these meters.

“The management of EEDC, however, reassures customers affected by the exercise that the company has no such intention of taking them back to estimated billing, rather, that the move is geared towards enhancing its service delivery and making customer experience even better.

“Customers, who have run out of credit on their meters, are encouraged to notify EEDC by visiting the customer service unit at the District Office serving them for notification and further action.

“To ensure a smooth transition, EEDC constituted several teams for each service centre to ensure timely migration of affected customers without subjecting them to any form of inconveniencies.

“The company also created a dedicated helpline (0815 082 5367) to handle all concerns and enquiries associated with this exercise for efficient operations,” he said.

Ezeh said that to address the immediate financial burden on the affected customers, EEDC undertook to install the smart pre-paid meters under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme without any down payment.

The EEDC spokesman explained that “while the installment repayment of the cost of the smart pre-paid meters will be spread over and up to 24 months.

“In the migration process, affected customers who have ran out of energy on their meters will be connected to supply and not subjected to darkness while the smart pre-paid metering process is initiated.

“However, if for any reason the new smart pre-paid meter cannot be installed immediately, the customer will be billed using the average of the last three months consumption recorded with their obsolete standalone pre-paid meters until the new meter is installed.”

He appealed to customers to understand and appreciate the company’s genuine intention and not allow themselves to be misguided by anyone or group, adding that EEDC was assuring its customers of continued commitment towards delivering improved services to them.

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