Govt grants customers access to transmission, distribution networks

THE Federal Government yesterday granted potential customers in the power sector access to transmission and distribution networks within their areas of operations.

The Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, had on May 15 this year, categorised four eligible customers in the Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) in line with the provisions of Section 27 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005 to buy power from a licensee besides the electricity distribution companies.

The directive was contained in the “Eligible Customer Regulations 2017, Regulation No Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC)-R-111” formally presented to the minister by the regulatory agency yesterday.

The first category comprises a group of registered endusers whose consumption is no less than 2Mwhr/h, metered on 11kv or 33kv delivery point in the distribution network and subject to a distribution use of system agreement for electrical energy.

The next set of customers are those metered on 132kv or 330kv delivery point under a transmission use of system agreement for connection and delivery of energy.

The other group consists of those with consumption in excess of 2Mwhr/h on a monthly basis and connected directly to a 33kv delivery point on the transmission network.

The last category accommodates customers whose minimum consumption is more than 2Mwhr/h over a period of one month and directly connected to the metering facility of a generation company, and have entered into a bilateral agreement for the construction and operation of a dis- tribution line.

According to the regulations, intending eligible customer status shall apply to the NERC which is to evaluate the application and come up with a decision not later than 30 days.

However, the prospective customers may have to pay more tariffs due to charges arising from transmission, distribution, regulatory fees, ancillary service charges as well as market administration system operation duties.

Receiving the 30-page regulations from the Vice Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, Fashola noted that the rules were key to the power recovery process.