EEPCo to fully replace postpaid electric meters in March

By Groum Abate (Capital)

The Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation (EEPCo) has struck a deal with an Egyptian company to replace the existing postpaid meters with pre paid meters in Addis Ababa and major towns across the country, with an outlay of 88.2 million birr.

The corporation signed the deal on Thursday February 14, with El Sewedy, an Egyptian electronic meters manufacturer.

Moges Belachew, Distribution and Customer Service head with EEPCo told Capital that the Egyptian company has won over two other competitors from China and South Africa for the supply.

According to him the replacement work is to be started by next month and it is planned to replace 120,000 postpaid electricity meters.

EEPCo has at present over 1.3 million customers.

Founded in Egypt more than 60 years ago, El Sewedy Group has also plans to open a manufacturing plant in the electricity field here in Ethiopia.

El Sewedy will manufacture electricity meters and other electric products in the country.
The Egyptian company will supply EEPCo new generation of electronic meters with the latest technologies of prepaid meters.

The corporation some time ago started a pilot project to test the meters and has installed them around Gerji area for the first time. According to Moges the pilot project has been successfully completed and it has already started to give out prepaid meters to its new customers.
Installation of the pre-paid meters would mean that consumers use the exact amount of electricity they paid for. It would also be the answer to customers’ billing problems.
The project that would evaluate the viability of replacing the post-paid meters with pre-paid ones has been completed and the corporation awarded the project of replacing the post paid meters.

Although EEPCo has about 1.3 million clients, almost all of them have been receiving monthly estimated bills, an issue which has caused considerable public outcry.

Prepaid metering in its simplest form refers to paying for electricity before it is used. The consumer purchases credit and then uses the resource until the credit expires.

Studies show that there are a number of reasons why a utility could consider installing a prepaid metering system. They include improved cash flow, no need for account posting or additional billing systems (1-2% savings), elimination of bad debts (5-12% average, with up to 40% in some developing countries), elimination of disconnection and reconnection fees, ease of installation, no need to access consumers’ property (particularly for split meter installations) and elimination of inaccurate meter readings.

There are also advantages to the customer, including budget management, control of energy usage, no cost for disconnection/reconnection and no waiting for reconnection, no deposits.
A prepaid metering system replaces the billing system, the reading of meters and the administration of revenue collection. Implementing such a system means a change of mindset, a change in the way the revenue collection is managed, a change in IT procedures, a change in customer service, a change in metering and a change in consumer behavior.