{"id":69598,"date":"2024-04-11T10:58:22","date_gmt":"2024-04-11T10:58:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=69598"},"modified":"2024-04-11T10:58:22","modified_gmt":"2024-04-11T10:58:22","slug":"69598","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/?p=69598","title":{"rendered":"Sales of solar panels, inverters boom in Abuja as residents fear electricity theft over tariff hike"},"content":{"rendered":"

Thogh many Nigerians have allegedly perfected the art of stealing electricity over the years, the situation looks likely to worsen, at least that is what some Abuja residents are saying, according to a News Agency of Nigeria report.<\/span><\/p>\n

It is also likely that the ubiquitous distribution company staff who visit to monitor the activities of these thieves are also likely to come under more attacks, if they are not adequately secured.<\/span><\/p>\n

Moreover, Everyday.ng<\/strong> reports that there has been a rash of the purchase of solar panels and inverters by residents who can afford them, in the face of an alleged glut from Chinese manufacturers in the international market.<\/span><\/p>\n

While the price of solar panels continue to tumble elsewhere, it appears to be rising in Nigeria. An interesting report by the Financial Times of London early this month, says solar panels have become so cheap that they are being used to build garden fences in the Netherlands and Germany, as a boom in Chinese production saturates the global market. <\/span><\/p>\n

The report adds: “The panels\u00a0 capture less sunlight when used as fencing than they do on roofs, but the process saves on high labour and scaffolding costs, according to analysts and posts on social media by households that have installed them. \u201cThis is the result of solar panels getting so cheap that we\u2019re just putting them everywhere,\u201d said Jenny Chase, lead solar analyst at BloombergNEF. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cSince installation cost \u2014 labour, scaffolding \u2014 is the vast majority of the cost of installing a rooftop PV [photovoltaic] system, it can make sense.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhy put up a fence when you can just put up a load of solar panels, even if they\u2019re not aligned exactly to the sun?\u201d says Martin Brough, head of climate research at BNP Paribas Exane. <\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cWhere the panels themselves are just incredibly cheap, the constraints become the installation costs and the sites\u2009.\u2009.\u2009.\u2009you get a bit of a DIY mentality.\u201d <\/span><\/p>\n

Solar panel supply globally will reach 1,100 gigawatts by the end of this year, or three times the present forecast for demand, the International Energy Agency estimates. A glut of manufacturing in China is driving this trend, it said.\u00a0 At the same time, installations have become more expensive, mainly owing to rising labour costs, and the wait for panels to be connected to electricity grids is testing industry and householder patience. Grid capacity issues affect most countries and cannot be easily and speedily resolved.<\/span>
\n<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, some electricity consumers in the Federal Capital Territory, FCT, have appealed to the Federal Government to review the new tariff\u00a0 downwards to avoid electricity theft.<\/span><\/p>\n

Some of the consumers who are mainly business owners\u00a0 told the News Agency of Nigeria on Wednesday that if the cost of electricity remained high some of them consumers might by-passing their meters.<\/span><\/p>\n

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, had announced an increase in electricity tariff paid by Band A customers from N68\/KWh to N225\/KWh.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201dI am appealing to government to review the tariff downward as such increase can lead to some consumers by-passing their meters and this is not good for Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC),\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

On his part, Samuel Kolawole also a printer said that the cost indicated in the new tariff was so high that it could negatively impact on businesses.<\/span><\/p>\n

He said that government should try and reduce the tariff so that it can benefit the rich and the poor people.<\/span><\/p>\n

According to him, 20 hours of electricity is good for business owners as this will reduce the cost of buying fuel or diesel for generators but the pricing should be business friendly.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201dWe are appealing to government to reduce the tariff to what we can afford so as to benefit everyone,\u201d he said.<\/span><\/p>\n

Also speaking on the issue, Abel Ajibola, also a graphic designer at Murg Plaza said that government means well for the people but the new tariff is outrageous, especially for small business owners.<\/span><\/p>\n

Mr Ajibola said that he would be glad if the government can review the tariff so that electricity consumer would not be tempted to start stealing electricity.<\/span><\/p>\n

\u25cf Additional report by NAN<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thogh many Nigerians have allegedly perfected the art of stealing electricity over the years, the situation looks likely to worsen, at least that is what some Abuja residents are saying, according to a News Agency of Nigeria report. It is also likely that the ubiquitous distribution company staff who visit to monitor the activities of […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":65027,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[913,5520,678],"class_list":["post-69598","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news","tag-abuja","tag-by-pass","tag-tariff"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69598","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=69598"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/69598\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/65027"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=69598"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=69598"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/everyday.ng\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=69598"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}