The distribution companies made the announcement in separate notices to their customers through their social media accounts on Tuesday.

They said the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) had approved the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2020 which took effect from Tuesday.

Mr Godwin Idemudia, EKEDC General Manager, Corporate Communications, told the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) that customers who enjoyed less than 12 hours of supply would not be affected by the new tariff plan.

Idemudia said that the new tariff was to ensure that prices charged by EKEDC was fair to customers.

He added that the new tariff would ensure full recovery of efficient cost of operations and reasonable rate of return on capital invested.

Idemudia said that it was to provide a path for transitioning to full service-based cost-reflective tariffs by July 2021, and to reclassify and disaggregate customers on the basis of agreed commitments on quality of service.

According to him, it is to ensure that customers pay tariffs that are commensurate with the power availability and service delivery commitments by EKEDC.

He said it would enable the development and implementation of a framework for enforcing market discipline in respect of market remittances and managing future revenue shortfalls in the industry.

Idemudia, therefore, called for cooperation and understanding from customers, noting that the new tariff would create a win-win for stakeholders in the industry.

On its part, IE said the new order clustered its customers into five Tariff Service Bands and revised the tariff payable by customers based on quality of service.

It said: “This is measured by the average availability of power delivered over a month period; factoring the frequency and duration of interruptions and other service parameters.

“The order shall remain in force until a new MYTO Order is issued.

“In the interim, please note that the tariffs for customers in Bands D and E (customers with less than 12 hours supply) shall remain frozen until there is improvement in service levels.

“In other words, the old tariff for customers in Bands D and E shall be maintained until Ikeja Electric improves the quality of service to these category of customers.” (NAN)