By Musa Adamu
Meter tampering and energy theft in different forms, are some of the daunting challenges that distribution companies (DisCos) in Nigeria are battling to stay afloat in the business, Head Information and Communication Technology, Kaduna Electric, Yasir Abdusalam, has stated.
To check the menace, he said Kaduna Electric recently launched the software known as the Automated Meter Reading (ARM), thus becoming the second Disco to do so.
He explained that the software was deployed for Maximum Demand (MD) customers in order to have a holistic view of any activity that takes place on the meter.
Speaking on this development, Abdulsalam, he said the feat was not only commendable because Kaduna Electric was the second to deploy this technology but because of the comprehensive monitoring advantage it has.
He said: “This is a feat that we must give ourselves credit for because the business has hemorrhaged from constant energy theft which has led to great loss of revenue.
“The ARM is designed to address issues of energy theft arising from looping, meter/ feeder bypass or any illegal activity. Once this happens we will be notified in the head office”.
Explaining further, Mr. Abdussalam said the ARM would equally help the company forecast a customer’s energy consumption and had the ability to keep record of what was consumed.
