Angola’s national electricity distribution company ENDE is set to install 22,000 prepaid meters in the Lunda-Sul municipalities of Cassengo, Saurimo and Muanguenji within days, as part of a push to modernise billing, reduce energy waste and recover mounting unpaid debt from customers.
Cristiano Santana, ENDE’s local director, told state news agency ANGOP on Thursday that the initiative was designed to ensure fairer billing for customers, prevent energy waste and support higher-quality power distribution across the province.
Santana added that the rollout also aimed to achieve greater equity in consumption accounting, drastically reduce illegal electricity connections and increase the company’s revenue collection.
Customer registration work is currently under way to identify and enrol beneficiaries of the prepaid metering system across the three localities of Cassengo, Saurimo and Muanguenji, the director said.
The urgency of the programme is underscored by the scale of outstanding receivables: customers in Lunda-Sul owe ENDE more than five billion kwanzas, a shortfall that has hampered the company’s ability to execute a number of planned projects, Santana noted.
He said the three municipalities earmarked for the first phase of the rollout are home to the largest concentrations of non-paying customers in the province.
The installation of the prepaid meters forms part of a broader corporate strategy to ease the financial constraints caused by customer arrears and move toward a system in which electricity must be purchased before it is consumed, Santana explained.
ENDE currently serves more than 30,000 customers across Lunda-Sul province.
Source: ANGOP / Original article: https://www.angop.ao/noticias/sociedade/ende-preve-instalar-22-mil-contadores-pre-pagos-na-lunda-sul/
