NERC Issues 14 New Permits for 2,809.1MW
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has given fresh power generation licences to 14 operators to build and generate up to 2,809.1 megawatts (MW) of electricity, despite the lingering financial crisis rocking the country’s power sector, a quarterly report of the commission obtained by THISDAY has revealed.
According to the 2017 third quarter regulatory report of NERC, which was recently released, the licences included nine on-grid generation plants with a total nameplate capacity of 2,738 MW and five captive power generation plants with a total capacity of 71.1 MW.
The report also showed that the regulatory agency is concerned that the electricity distribution companies are hoarding market funds to the detriment of the other members of the value chain and is working on a framework to stop the Discos from keeping more than their due income in the market.
The report said the new licences brought the number of power generation licences so far issued by NERC to 132.
It added that 93 of them were on-grid licences; 29 were off-grid and 10 were independent electricity networks.
“During the quarter under review, the commission granted licenses, permits and certificates to a number of qualified applicants. The commission issued nine on-grid generation licenses with a total nameplate capacity of 2,738 MW, while five permits were issued for captive power generation with a total capacity of 71.1 MW.
“This brings the total number of on-grid, off-grid issued by the commission since inception up till the end of the third quarter of 2017 to 93, 29 and 10 respectively,” said the report.
The report equally indicated that while the commission issued the new generation licences which would when completed increase Nigeria’s power generation capacity, it is however worried about the financial status of the sector.
NERC’s report showed that the Discos were deliberately hoarding market funds to the detriment of the industry, noting that it was working on a framework to stop them from keeping more than their due income in the market.
According to the report, the Discos were still inefficient in their revenue remittances to the sector.
The report revealed that the Discos were issued a bill of N147 billion for energy received from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and for the services provided by the market administrators but they remitted only N44 billion of the invoice, even after collecting N90.3 billion out of the total bill of N151.8 billion they issued to their customers.
“The liquidity challenges in the industry continued to manifest within the quarter as evidenced in the Discos’ remittances relative to the invoice received for energy purchased from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET) and the invoice received for administrative services from the Market Operator (MO).
“In the third quarter of 2017, whereas Discos were issued an invoice of N147 billion for energy received from NBET and for the services provided by the market administrators, only N44 billion of the invoice was settled, creating a total shortfall of N103 billion,” it said.