The Federal Government on Monday unveiled the Power Outage Reporting System, which allows users to report power outages to distribution companies monitored by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission.
The applications were introduced at the NERC headquarters in Abuja, with the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company serving as a test-run DisCo.
Chairman of the NERC, Sanusi Garba, stated that the application would allow the commission to efficiently deal with power distributors that fail to handle power outages reported by consumers.
“We recently launched a new regulation that provides timelines within which public utilities, especially DisCos, are required to resolve complaints from customers. So this particular app being unveiled today is to assist the commission in monitoring whether DisCos are complying with the standard set out in that regulation.
“Originally, the application was designed for crowd-sourcing data for the purpose of service-based tariffs. By crowd-sourcing, the application was to sample the quality of supply that customers are experiencing.
“But the commission decided that it is better to put smart meters on all feeders so that we have 100 per cent live data or near real-time data to ensure that the DisCos are actually complying with the service obligations that are prescribed in the tariff orders,” Garba stated.
