Q: How does IE handle cases of stolen prepaid meter?
A: First, the customer is required to make a formal report after which Ikeja Electric sends its officials to investigate by visiting the location to validate the customer’s claim.
- If the claim is valid and there’s a meter available for replacement, the meter will be replaced, however the customer bears the cost of replacement as enshrined in the NERC regulations guiding the loss/damage to a prepaid meter.
- Replacement of such meter (if available) takes a minimum of two weeks from the date of investigative report by the IE official.
- The Customer will be placed on estimation for the period before replacement.
Q: Can a stolen meter be tracked?
A: It is not possible to track a stolen meter but where it is installed can be detected. This is usually triggered by a report of inability to vend energy by the customer.
- It can also be detected if the meter is a smart meter, since the process that involves getting a new smart card requires that the customer data is validated before issuing another one.
Q: Can a stolen meter be used by another person?
A: A stolen meter can be used by another person but not legitimately if…
- There’s internal connivance from an IE staff
- The meter was stolen along with the smart card
- It is an STS meter ( The type that can be recharged online with a code number, this particular meter does not require the smart card to vend and are actually less than 30% available on IE’s network)
- Most of the STS meters available in the system were installed before the privatization of the power sector, hence there are people who already have the card readers of these meters and can subject it to manipulations.
