Do You know Your Electricity Tariff Band?

By Oghosa Erhahon

Before the electricity hike this September, many admit they probably had not taken cognizance of their electricity tariff classes. However, with electricity bills increasing by as much as 50 per cent for some consumers, this is an excellent time to understand your electricity tariff categorisations and find out how you get billed for electricity usage.

Previously in Nigeria, for electricity customers, there were 5 Tariff classes;

• Residential (R1, R2, R3, R4)
• Commercial (C1, C2, C3)
• Industrial (D1, D2, D3)
• Special (A1, A2, A3)
• Public Street Lighting (S)

Across the 11 DisCos, the customers in D3, mostly facilities used for manufacturing purposes, had the highest tariff rates, while the customers in R1, residentials using household utilities with an energy demand of less than five Kilovolts-ampere (kVA) had the lowest. Before September 1^st, these customer classes varied due to the infrastructural, operational costs associated with the supply and distribution of power to the varied customers.

Despite failing to fix infrastructural challenges that result in high operational losses, the Nigerian electricity sector has implemented a Service Reflective Tariff (SRT) that allows DisCos to charge consumers for the quality of electricity they supply daily. With the implementation of service reflective tariff (SRT) customers are now classified into bands based on the number of hours they receive electricity daily. These bands also subdivide consumers into Maximum Demand (MD 1 & MD2) and  Non-Maximum Demand (Non-MD) consumers.

Listed below are the various Band and descriptions to help you understand which Band your home or business belong to:

Customers who fall within Band D and E will currently not experience any tariff increase until January 2021.

You may be wondering what if the DisCos lie about how many hours of electricity I receive?

Well, DisCos classify the feeders under their franchise areas into these service bands. By contacting your DisCo, you would find out which service band the feeder which serves your location falls under and what band you fall under. If you do not receive the appropriate amount as stated in your band contact NERC to file a complaint.