NERC frowns at DisCos over partial revenue remittance

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has warned the 11 electricity distribution companies to desist from deliberately reducing their market remittance as it vows to enforce actions to ensure an equitable distribution under a structured regime.

NERC in its new report observed that Discos’ remittance performance did not reflect the level of revenue collection, and that some DisCos might be reducing remittances.

In the report, of the 6,815GWh total energy received by DisCos from NBET in the first quarter of year 2018, 5,433GWh was billed to the end users with a total invoice of 163.1billion for energy received and for the services provided by Market Operators but that only 51.2bn of the invoice was settled, creating a total deficit of 112bn.

It said it is developing a framework to ensure transparency in the utilization of market funds to improve the liquidity in the power sector.

NERC has also issued two new ongrid and four off-grid licences and granted extension for one licensee in the first quarter of the year with a combined capacity of 1,464MW while three permits were renewed for captive power generation with a total capacity of 375MW. It is also reviewing six captive power generation applications from MTN for different locations with a combined capacity of 8.88MW.