Impact of Prepaid Energy Metering System on the Electricity Consumption in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area of Oyo State

Abstract

Electricity is one of the basic requirements for people and they are widely used for domestic, industrial and agricultural purposes. Every meter is a device that measures the amount of electrical energy consumed by a residence, business or an electrically powered device. This paper presents the impact of prepaid energy metering system on electricity consumption in Ogbomoso South Local Government Area of Oyo state. The results of the paper revealed that about 95% of the pre-paid meter users in the local government area are conscious of electricity management, about 74% of the post-paid meter users were just wasting the energy. The introduction of the pre-paid metering system has increased the revenue collection and hence, reduced the revenue generation of the local government area because of the reliability nature of the metering system. The pre-paid metering system has created a positive impact on the electricity consumption as well as the increment in the price tariff of the electricity.

Keywords: Energy metering system, Electricity consumption, Post-paid metering system, Pre-paid metering system, Solid state electronic meters (SSEM).