Onu Okorie
The Federal Government has been advised to urgently prevail on the authority of Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) to reverse its newly approved guidelines on filing applications for competition transition charge by electricity distribution and trading licensees.
This was contained in a letter of protest signed by the National Coordinator of the Transparency Awareness Group (TANGO) Mallam Ibrahim Isah .
According to him, “Following the release of Regulation No NERC-R-111 issued by (NERC) on the November 1, 2017 for the Nigerian Electricity Service Industry (NESI), the Eligibility Customer Status came into existence to facilitate the off-take of the stranded 2,000 megawatts of electricity that the Distribution Companies (DISCOs) were not able to distribute and give life to the Generating Companies (GENCOs) as a source of other income without depending on DISCOs.”
The letter reads: “A few of our members went through harrowing obstacles such as providing, among other things, the needed infrastructures like the 132/33kVa Transmission Dedicated Lines to their plants, the intake and the outlet substations to access power under the scheme without any contribution(s) from DISCOs.
This gave a new lease of life to their production and has simultaneously evacuated part of the 2,000 stranded power with bulk-income accruing to the Gencos and the TCN.
‘Whilst the industrialists in the organised private sector, the (Gencos) and the (TCN) were jubilating over the successful commencement of the scheme, the cartel of Discos ganged up together with myriads of excuses not to allow the scheme to work and vowed to torpedo the scheme.