The Lagos State Electricity Regulatory Commission (LSERC) has announced plans to criminalise the distribution of electricity without meters starting in 2026. This enforcement is based on Section 89(2) of the Lagos Electricity Law and forms part of the Strategic Implementation Plan to achieve universal smart metering. The directive targets Distribution Companies (Discos) operating in the state and aims to end arbitrary billing for unmetered consumers. The 2025 Lagos Electricity Market Report, released by LSERC, states that the national metering rate stood at 55.37 per cent as of September 2025.
Lagos, with an estimated electricity demand of 12,000 megawatts, received an average of only 930MW from the national grid during the third quarter of 2025. This leaves a supply deficit of approximately 11,000MW. Nigeria's installed generation capacity is 13,625MW, but actual average generation dispatched was just 5,430MW in the same period. The shortfall forces residents and businesses to rely on petrol and diesel generators, with Lagos hosting over 40 per cent of the country's informal off-grid generation capacity.
Two new distribution companies, Excel Electricity Distribution Limited and IE Energy Lagos Limited, were licensed in October 2025 as successors to the former Eko and Ikeja Discos. They serve about 1.55 million customers. Eighteen other entities have applied for licensing, while 27 operators licensed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) continue operating in Lagos without transitioning to the LSERC framework. Service delivery remains weak—Excel achieved only 33.8 per cent compliance in Band 'A', where consumers should receive at least 20 hours of power daily.
The state plans to implement cost-reflective tariffs without government subsidies, alongside a lifeline tariff for low-income households funded through cross-subsidisation.
LSERC is enforcing a law to criminalise unmetered power supply in 2026, even though Excel, one of the state's main Discos, delivered only a third of the required power in Band 'A'. The push for universal metering ignores that most consumers are already paying for electricity they do not receive. If the grid cannot deliver consistent supply, criminalising unmetered connections does little to fix the core failure. Metering without reliable power is accountability without service.
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