Practice area
Electricity Consumer Rights
Your supply is a regulated service, not a favour. The Electricity Act 2023 and the Customer Protection Regulations 2023 give you rights that most consumers are never told about, and that a distribution company cannot lawfully ignore.
What we act on
The disputes that reach us.
Disconnection and reconnection
Disconnection without the written notice the regulations require, refusal or delay in reconnecting after you have paid or offered to pay, and compensation where a disconnection was not justified.
Bypass and tampering allegations
The Commission’s procedure requires a physical inspection and an integrity test, recorded on video, in the customer’s presence. A report that records a conclusion without recording a test is not an inspection, and an allegation is not a finding.
Back billing and estimated bills
Bills raised for a period with no reading, no computation and no stated tariff, and estimated billing applied to premises that are metered.
Metering, refunds and reclaimed meters
Customer purchased meters reclaimed by the company, refunds promised in energy units and never delivered, delays in metering, and demands that a customer pay to relocate a meter.
Loss and damage
Where a prolonged interruption has cost you income, spoiled goods or damaged equipment, and the forum that can award that is not the one that hears the complaint.
Landlord and tenant supply
Premises where the account stands in the landlord’s name, shared feeds serving more than one tenancy, and disconnections that take down a tenant against whom nothing is alleged.
From the distribution company to the Commission
Order matters more than volume.
A complaint filed in the wrong place is usually struck out as premature rather than decided. This is the sequence. Each step builds the record for the next, and the Commission should have seen that record before its Forum is asked to rule on it.
Written complaint to the distribution company
Lodged by email with the Customer Complaints Unit, dated and referenced. Keep every ticket number the company issues. A company that later says it cannot find your complaint should be shown its own reference.
Escalation within the company
To the Business Unit and, where warranted, to the Managing Director, with the demand, the deadline and any offer or tender stated in writing, and hard copies delivered against a stamped acknowledgment.
The Consumer Affairs Division of the Commission
Copied on the escalation, the Consumer Affairs Division of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission puts the regulator on notice early and can press a distribution company to act. It does not decide the dispute and it does not replace the Forum.
The NERC Forum Office
The forum established to hear consumer complaints. Its jurisdiction has limits worth knowing before filing, including that it cannot award damages, and there is more than one gateway to it. Choosing the wrong one costs weeks.
Court, for what the Forum cannot give
Damages and declaratory relief are matters for the court, brought as an original action once the regulatory route has been exhausted. Claims brought before that point are struck out as premature.
If your supply has just been cut