MEET THE STAFF SERIES

Constant PPM Monitoring Will Curtail Energy Theft

CCD: Who is Sani Mohammad Makera?
SM:  I had my primary school education at Marafa Model Primary School Bunza. My Junior Secondary School Education was in Government Science and Technical College Bunza. The concluding part of my secondary school education was in Nagari College Birnin Kebbi. Then I proceeded to Usmanu Danfodiyo University Sokoto where I studied Physics. I had my one-year compulsory national service in Abuja in the office of FCT Minister as SURE-P CSWYES Coordinator representing Kwali Area Council. I completed my national youth service in June 2014.

 CCD: When did you join Kaduna Electric?

SM: After my NYSC, I worked with a recruitment company, Joblink Recruitment Service with Head Office in Lagos. I was the State Coordinator, Human Resources, Kebbi State. I later joined Kaduna Electric in September 2015 after going through a rigorous selection process.    

CCD: What were you employed to do for Kaduna Electric?

SM:  I was employed as a metering engineer.  My primary responsibility is to ensure that customers are billed, classified based on tariff, assessed based on load and metered accordingly. Recently, the level of energy loss and theft has become a thing of worry in this company. This is why we have to ensure constant visits to our metered customers and unmetered ones to avoid energy theft and losses.

CCD: How would you describe the kinds of challenges you are facing

SM: As I said earlier, the issue is not just metering but what happens after metering the customers which is the need for constant monitoring to avoid energy theft. Energy theft has become the major challenge bedeviling the smooth running of this company and we can only address if we give attention to it.

CCD: In your own view, how can we curtail such problem?

SM: As I have said earlier, timely monitoring of metered customers is a practical and effective way to curtail energy theft.

CCD: Recently there has been an increase in cases of burnt meters, what is the cause and how are you handling it?

SM: Some of the cases of burnt meters are due to negligence. During pre-metering inspection survey, we made sure that customers are given meters suitable for their load and these meters have what we called ‘Maximum Power Limit’, this is a device that trips off the meter once the maximum load is exceeded thereby saving the meter. Whenever we have a report of any burnt meter, we visit the customer’s premises and inspect the reasons why the meter got burnt. If we find out it is deliberate, the customer will pay for a replacement and all the accompanying charges.

However, we rarely have cases of burnt meters. And this is essentially because of Maximum Voltage Limit that comes with these meters. 

CCD: In your own area of coverage, how do you monitor Prepaid Meter collections and vending?
SM: At the end of every month, we do a check of our active PPMs versus their vending status. This enables us to gather some information such as non-vending customers, those that have not vended for a long time and those under vending considering their load. With these we are able to spot the areas we are losing revenue.

CCD: Which do you consider a better option in determining customers’ consumption: the meter or estimated billing?
SM: To measure the customers’ consumption with meter is a better option.

CCD: What are the shortcomings of the PPMs?
SM: Most of the newly installed meters are from Elsewedy and they come with a sensitive User Control, meaning that most of the problems associated with the meters are due to human error. I am not saying that our meters are error-free but the customers cause most of the problems.

CCD: Do you have any suggestion or advice to the company?
SM: Oh yes, metering is the backbone of the electricity business. I am therefore calling on management to stick to the metering deployment policy if it must attain accurate reading of energy consumed and for revenue collection.

CCD:What are your hobbies?
SM: Reading novels, jogging and hanging with friends.

CCD:Thank you for your time.
SM: You are welcome.