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Isaac Anumihe with agency report
As the Federal Government is celebrating a daily grid peak of 110,724.93MWH, Electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) are accusing the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for causing them to lose N1.4 trillion revenue in the power sector.
According to the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), NERC has refused to review the current tariff since 2016 as against what is prescribed in the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO).
ANED said that MYTO provides for a minor review of the prevailing electricity tariff every six months based on certain indices, including inflation, foreign exchange rate, domestic lending rate and power generation level.
MYTO is a tariff model for incentive-based regulation to reward performance above certain benchmarks, reduction of technical and non-technical/commercial losses, resulting in cost recovery and improved performance standards by operators in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI).
The Director of Advocacy and Research at ANED, Sunday Oduntan, said at the weekend that since the current tariff regime took effect on the February 4, 2016, NERC is yet to carry out any review, more than three years later. A major tariff review should be conducted after five years under the MYTO.
“There has not been a single minor review by NERC. As a result of the high cost of the technical and other inputs in the electricity supply value chain, Discos have not been having cost recovery, as they are not allowed to charge cost reflective tariff. Due to this, our records show a market shortfall in excess of N1.4 trillion on the electricity supply value chain.
“In the current tariff regime, the assumption was that by 2017 we would have generated 7,000MW of electricity, and by 2018, we would have done 9,000MW. Are we on that now?” the director asked.
Meanwhile, Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)has announced that the power sector has achieved a new daily grid energy peak of 110,724.93MWH.
In a statement, the General Manager, Public Affairs, Ndidi Mbah, said that this is an improvement on the previous maximum daily grid energy peak of 109,372,01MWH attained over two years ago on February 2, 2016. She said the new maximum daily energy peak is much higher than the last one attained over two years ago by 1,352.92MWH.
TCN explained that the maximum daily grid energy of 110,724.93MWH is different from the peak grid generation (power) of 5,375.0MW attained on February 7, 2019.
