Two companies distribute power in Lagos: Ikeja Electric north and west of the lagoon, and Eko Electricity for the island and the south. Which DisCo you are on is decided by geography, not choice.
Bands are a promise, and a price
Since April 2024 tariffs have been set by band, and the band is a promise about hours of supply rather than a description of your house.
| Band | Promised supply | Tariff |
|---|---|---|
| A | 20 hours a day | ₦209.50/kWh |
| B | 16 hours a day | ₦63/kWh |
Band A customers pay roughly three times the Band B rate because the subsidy was removed for Band A alone. The bargain is explicit: you pay the commercial rate, you get 20 hours.
This is enforceable. Under the NERC order, a DisCo that fails to deliver the Band A hours for two consecutive days must report it, and the feeder is meant to be downgraded to the band it is actually performing at — which lowers your tariff.
So find out what feeder you are on and what band it is. Ask your DisCo in writing, and keep a log of outages with dates and times. That log is the whole of your case.
Get a prepaid meter
The alternative is estimated billing, where the DisCo decides what you used and bills you for it. Estimates are not generous.
An unmetered flat also carries whatever arrears the last occupant left, which is a real reason to check the meter before you sign a tenancy — see how to find a place.
Meters are supplied under the Meter Asset Provider scheme. Apply through your DisCo. Buying a meter from someone at the office is how people end up with an unregistered meter and a bypass allegation, which is a criminal matter.
Top up through your bank app or your DisCo’s app, and keep the token receipts. A disputed credit is unwinnable without them.
What the generator costs
Almost every household ends up with one, and the fuel is the cost, not the machine.
A small generator burns about 6 litres over an evening’s use. At ₦900 a litre, that is a daily running cost most households do not sit down and calculate until they have been paying it for a year.
Two things worth doing properly:
- Put it outside, with the exhaust pointing away from windows. Carbon monoxide from a generator run in an enclosed space kills people in Lagos every year, including in rooms the generator was not technically in.
- Do not store fuel indoors.
Solar with battery storage is now genuinely competitive against a generator that runs every evening, and the arithmetic is the fuel bill above rather than anything ideological.
When there is no light
“Up NEPA” is what you will hear when it comes back. NEPA has not existed since 2005. Nobody minds.
Mains is 230V, 50Hz, with British three-pin sockets. Surges on restoration are common and destructive — a fridge or a laptop charger is worth a surge protector.
Report a fault to your DisCo, not to the general emergency line. For a downed cable or a fire, call 767 or 112.