Business

By Anayo Ezugwu

 

THE hope of most electricity consumers in the country is to pay for the exact electricity they consumed. This may soon become a reality with the federal government approving N39 billion loans to the Electricity Distribution Companies, DISCOs, for the supply of prepaid meters.

Babatunde Fashola, minister of power, works and housing, said the gesture was part of power sector recovery programme of the government aimed at ensuring uninterrupted power generation and distribution. He added that it was also aimed at ensuring that every consumer of electricity is provided with a meter.

The minister made the disclosure in Kano, at the 18th Monthly Power Sector Stakeholders Meeting hosted by Kano Electricity Distribution Company, KEDCO. “It is also aimed at ending the series of complaints by consumers who applied for meter but were not supplied at the appropriate time,’’ he said.

The minister explained that the successful implementation of the power sector recovery programme would assist in resolving the conflict between distributors and consumers over tariff collection. Fashola said power generation improved tremendously in 2017 to 6, 863 megawatts compared to 2016.

He attributed the reason for the increase to government’s efforts to end rampant vandalism of gas pipelines. “With this development, we have also noticed increase in the distribution of electricity to consumers across the country.’’

Fashola said presently, the federal government is generating electricity beyond the carrying capacity of distribution companies, “which is a serious challenge to our efforts. It is a serious problem that the distribution companies do not have enough carrying capacity to accommodate more of the generated electricity due to one reason or the other.”

He said that government had embarked on several projects to expand transmission capacity and distribution of power in the country.

Also, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, also said that heavy power users who would want to apply for the eligible customers’ cadre would pay between N30 and N80 per kilowatts hour, kwh. The NERC, in a communiqué issued after the meeting, stated that the rate would be slightly higher than the existing grid rate and lower than the amount large power users spend on diesel generators.

It equally explained that contrary to the belief that state governments in the country were not allowed to engage in the business of power generation and distribution in their respective states, the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA) 2005, allows for them to get involved in the sector.

“Eligible customers are provided for in the Electric Power Sector Reform, EPSR, to resolve inability to take load by Discos. The eligible customers described include large power consumers such as state governments, industrial clusters, etc. Eligible customers may apply to NERC to privately acquire power, independent of Discos.

“It was noted that the negotiated price for large consumers would likely be lower than the 80 naira per kwh or more (the current average cost of diesel generators) and may be higher than the 30 naira per kwh of grid power. This will occur only on a willing buyer, willing seller basis. The meeting also noted that nothing in the EPSR Act prevents electricity generation and distribution by state governments, and such endeavours were fully supported by the meeting as no monopoly was intended by the law in electricity generation and distribution,” the communiqué stated.

 

Tags: Babatunde Fashola communiqué distributors Electricity Distribution Companies FG approves N39bn Loan for Supply of Prepaid Meters Kano Electricity Distribution Company KEDCO minister of power NERC Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission power sector works and housing

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