Ugwuaji Speaks, MainPower Commits: EERC Turns Electricity Grievances into a ₦1.2bn Plan

NEWS HEADLINE: Ugwuaji Speaks, MainPower Commits: EERC Turns Electricity Grievances into a ₦1.2bn Plan

After years of electricity complaints, EERC brought Ugwuaji residents and MainPower together, resulting in MainPower publicly committing to a ₦1.2 billion investment plan and a 7,500-customer metering target, with EERC providing regulatory oversight

A transformer breaks down. Electricity supply becomes unreliable. Bills keep arriving, sometimes for premises without meters. A new tenant moves into a property only to discover an outstanding electricity debt that may have accumulated long before their arrival.

Residents of Ugwuaji raised these grievances before the Enugu State Electricity Regulatory Commission (EERC) on Friday, October 23, 2026. The complaints were not simply about electricity supply. They reflected a deeper dispute over billing, infrastructure, responsibility, and trust between a community and its electricity distributor.

One resident captured that mistrust in an observation about MainPower Electricity Distribution Limited, the operator serving the community. The resident hoped the transition from EEDC to MainPower would bring more than a new name: it should produce a different attitude toward customers and a measurable improvement in service.

The challenge extended beyond corporate identity. Would consumers see a genuine change in how they were billed, heard and served?

EERC’s intervention brought that question into the public forum. After the distribution company complained about Ugwuaji, the Commission convened residents, traditional and community leaders, government representatives, and MainPower’s management.

Rather than relying solely on the operator’s account, the regulator went to the community to hear the other side.

By the end of the engagement, MainPower outlined plans to invest approximately ₦1.2 billion in metering and network improvements, meter about 7,500 customers within one year, and establish a joint committee to address historical grievances.

These were commitments made before the regulator, not evidence that the investment or improvements had already been delivered.

Why Ugwuaji Matters

“Ugwuaji is blessed,” said Mr Chijioke M. Okonkwo, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EERC, as he addressed the gathering.

His observation reflected the community’s position as a host to critical electricity infrastructure within Enugu State’s developing electricity market.

Yet the presence of important infrastructure had not insulated residents from complaints about damaged transformers, prolonged outages, estimated billing and disputed electricity debts.

The contrast made Ugwuaji an important test of whether electricity market reform could translate into more accountable service at community level.

Okonkwo assured residents of the Commission’s commitment to consumer protection. He also reminded them that electricity rights come with responsibilities: paying legitimate bills, protecting public infrastructure and avoiding energy theft.

The traditional ruler, His Royal Highness Igwe Chinedu Nwobodo, welcomed the delegation, recalled the community’s electricity difficulties and called for sustained improvements.

Delivering Governor Peter Ndubuisi Mbah’s goodwill message, Hon. Ikechukwu Cosmas Otaba, Senior Special Assistant to the Governor on Public Utilities and Infrastructure Protection, urged residents to safeguard electricity infrastructure and work constructively with their service provider.

Otaba emphasised that “customers are kings”, while stressing that the government would work with EERC through its Chairman and CEO to support improved electricity services. He cited Uzo-Uwani Local Government Area as an example of how community cooperation could help prevent the loss of public property.

Otaba also charged EERC to help create conditions that would attract electricity investment to Ugwuaji.

The regulator does not itself become the electricity investor by convening a meeting. Its responsibility is to establish and enforce rules under which consumers are protected, operators meet their obligations and investment can take place with greater confidence.

Taking Regulation Beyond the Office

The source account described the Ugwuaji engagement, anchored by Chuka Charles Chima, EERC’s Lead Communications Officer, as the Commission’s first community-level initiative of its kind.

Its significance lay in the format: the regulator met residents directly, explained their rights and obligations, and gave both the community and MainPower an opportunity to address the issues.

Mrs Nennaya Ugwu, Head of EERC’s Consumer Complaints Resolution Desk (CCRD), led a consumer-education session on rights, responsibilities and complaint procedures under the Commission’s Customer Service Standards and Protection Regulation.

Speaking partly in the community’s local language, Ugwu explained how consumers could report grievances, preserve evidence and seek regulatory redress. Her presentation drew enthusiastic applause.

Engr. Chinedum Ukabiala, Commissioner for Engineering Standards and Occupational Safety, Health and Environment, followed, explaining metering.

He addressed prepaid and postpaid meters, customer enumeration, meter allocation in compounds occupied by several households, meter tampering and the importance of retaining electricity bills and receipts. He also discussed protections available under applicable regulations, including remedies for wrongful disconnection.

The message was practical: understanding electricity rules shouldn't require specialist knowledge, and consumers should know what they can demand and what the law requires of them.

Consumers Have Rights — and Responsibilities

The Commission’s message was not that consumers were always right or that the distribution company was always wrong.

Residents are entitled to applicable metering and billing protections, proper handling of complaints and remedies where a provider breaches its obligations. They also have responsibilities to pay for electricity legitimately consumed, avoid meter tampering and protect electricity infrastructure.

During the open discussion, residents described damaged and overloaded transformers, weeks without electricity and billing disputes. Some questioned why new tenants should inherit charges associated with previous occupants. Others sought clarification about meters in multi-household premises.

Questions were also raised about land affected by public infrastructure and electricity assets that residents said had been financed by the community. Those accounts require examination; raising a grievance does not, by itself, establish legal liability or ownership.

The President General of Ugwuaji, Barr. Anayo Nweke, was among the community leaders recognized during the proceedings.

Ukabiala explained that customer enumeration and meter installation fall within the distribution company’s responsibilities, including determining appropriate arrangements for individual premises.

On inherited bills, the Commission advised affected tenants to approach the operator so that charges relating to earlier consumption could be examined separately from their own.

Barr. Reuben Okoye, Commissioner for Market Operations, urged residents to put grievances in writing. A written complaint records the issue and helps establish the basis for regulatory intervention.

He encouraged cooperation with MainPower’s enumeration exercise, while the proposed joint committee would address historical disputes. When tensions briefly surfaced, community leaders and EERC officials reaffirmed residents’ right to be heard. The discussion continued.

₦1.2bn in Commitments, Not Completed Investment

MainPower’s Managing Director, Dr Ernest Mupwaya, told the Commission that the company planned to invest approximately ₦1.2 billion in Ugwuaji, covering metering, network rehabilitation and infrastructure upgrades.

He said the company would enumerate and meter about 7,500 customers within one year, adding that meters for the exercise were already available. Mupwaya also outlined MainPower’s target of metering all its customers by the end of 2027.

To address historical grievances, the company committed to a joint committee comprising five MainPower representatives and five Ugwuaji community representatives.

Mupwaya sought residents’ cooperation with enumeration and metering, linking accurate customer records and legitimate bill payments to the operator’s ability to support further infrastructure investment.

These were undertakings made before the Commission, not completed projects. An investment figure announced at a public meeting is not the same as money spent. A metering target is not the same as a meter installed. A proposed grievance committee cannot resolve disputes until it is constituted and begins work.

EERC has indicated that it will monitor implementation.

From Conflict to Investment Confidence

The implications extend beyond Ugwuaji.

Accurate customer records can help identify who consumes electricity and how to bill them. Metering can reduce reliance on estimates and provide clearer evidence in disputes. Effective complaint resolution can help restore customer confidence in their service provider.

For operators, predictable rules, legitimate revenue recovery, and infrastructure protection can improve conditions for network investment. For consumers, the corresponding benefit should be transparent billing, improved service and enforceable protections.

Neither outcome is automatic. The Commission’s task is to ensure that the operator’s commercial interests remain subject to its service obligations and that consumers understand that sustainable electricity provision also depends on lawful payment and infrastructure protection.

The Next Test Is Delivery

EERC explained that consumers should first submit complaints to MainPower in writing and retain copies of correspondence, bills, and payment receipts.

If complaints remain unresolved or are not satisfactorily addressed within 30 days, residents should contact EERC’s Consumer Complaints Resolution Desk at No. 2 Forest Close, off Forest Crescent, GRA, Enugu. The Desk can be contacted on 07072051569 or at ccrd@eerc.en.gov.ng. Applicable regulations are available through www.eerc.en.gov.ng.

EERC will extend similar engagements to other communities across Enugu State.

For Ugwuaji, however, success will not be measured by meeting attendance or the value of the promises made. It will be measured by what happens afterward.

EERC has moved Ugwuaji’s grievances from competing accounts to public commitments. Its next task is to ensure those commitments translate into measurable improvements in metering, billing, electricity service, and regulatory accountability.