Ghanaian company presents NERC with energy theft detector device

According to This Day, NERC’s Commissioner for Finance and Management Services, Nathan Shatti, said the regulator’s officials will soon be meeting with a Ghanaian company that will present to them a kind of meter that can detect energy theft.

“Next week, a te ergy theft. They came, made a presentation and we felt what they are showing is good and so our team is going to Ghana to look at it,” said Shatti.

Eliminating energy theft

He continued: “But let me just explain something about meter bypass or energy theft; it is beyond regulation and it isn’t beyond enforcing the regulation. It isn’t also beyond technology. There is no amount of technology or checks that you will do to eliminate energy theft.”

“However, there are things you can do and it has to do with our moral psyche as Nigerians. If you check properly, the calibre of people who steal energy are the top guys. They are those people who you think will never do such things, not the small people in the society. So, it is a problem of a society and we all have a responsibility to stop it,” said Shatti.

The rise in electricity has saw Nigeria Security and Civil Defence Corps (NSCDC) working closely with the electricity distribution companies (DISCOs) to combat electricity theft and vandalism against state infrastructure.

Last year, the NSCDC spokesperson, Emmanuel Okeh, said: “We are working closely with the DISCOs to ensure adequate protection for these critical assets to avoid vandalism by unscrupulous elements.”[Courtesy:ESI AFRICA]