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Electricity: How infrastructure, lack of liquidity, others cripple supply to consumers Investigation
On As Consumers kick over high estimated bills
By Udeme Akpan
Despite the rise in average electricity sent out year-on-year, YoY, from 90,098.1 megawatts, mw, in 2019, to 94,274.9 mw in 2020, indicating an increase of 4.64 per cent, lack of infrastructure, inadequate liquidity and other problems continue to disrupt the transmission and distribution of adequate electricity to consumers nationwide.
Specifically, the third quarter Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, key operational and financial data obtained by Energy Vanguard from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, weekend, showed that the delivery to consumers was constrained mainly by issues that have to do with transmission and dist
Nigeria, a country of over 200 million people, endowed with every resource needed to generate power, including large gas deposits, hydro, solar and even wind sources, still relies on roughly 3,500 to 4,000mw of electricity for its huge population. In this report, Emmanuel Addeh asks if the country will ever achieve stable and reliable electricity supply, with what appears to be all motion, no movement by past and current players in the industry
Sixty years after Nigeria effectively gained independence from its British colonial masters, the country is yet to come close to attaining any level of sufficiency in its pursuit of reliable power for its people and their businesses. Today, itâs no longer shocking to see offices owned by electricity Distribution Companies (Discos) in several states of the federation, being powered by generating sets and some others using rechargeable lamps when customers visit to carry out transactions.
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Power generation companies (Gencos) yesterday called for the scrapping of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), describing the industry’s regulator as weak and unable to perform its duty.
They said despite the powers bestowed upon the commission, indiscipline and contract breaches were still pervading the electricity supply space with the regulator refusing to act at all or taking decisions late.
In the latest biannual bulletin, published by the Gencos, the Executive Director of the Association of Power Generation Companies of Nigeria (APGC), umbrella body of the over 20 generators in the country, Dr. Joy Ogaji, advocated an “independent and transparent regulator.”
•CBN, NERC intervention meet deadlock
Despite the intervention of Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to address the liquidity crisis rocking Nigeria’s electricity market, the sector continues to struggle under heavy debt.
Being the revenue collectors in the market, NERC had, last year, set a minimum market remittance threshold payable by the 11 power distribution companies operating across the country.
NERC mandated the DisCos to make 100 per cent remittances to the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)’s Market Operator (MO), repay loans to CBN and remit some percentage to Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) monthly.
BRIEF HISTORY
Electricity was first generated in Nigeria in 1866 when two
generating sets were installed to serve the Colony of Lagos. In
1951, the government of Nigeria, through an Act of Parliament,
established the Electricity Commission of Nigeria (ECN) to regulate
and operate the power supply systems in Nigeria. Subsequently, the
Niger Dam Authority (NDA) was established for the development of
the Kanji Hydroelectric Dam. In 1972, the ECN and the NDA were
merged to form the Nigerian Electric Power Authority (NEPA).
Until the enactment of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act
(EPSRA), the Nigerian power sector (with the exception of a few