Power Supply Increases by 11%

• Power Supply Increases by 11%

Nigeria’s electricity supply has risen by 11 per cent in the past one week as Electricity Generation Companies, GENCOs, Transmission Company of Nigeria, TCN and Electricity Distribution Companies; DISCOs strive to provide adequate power to consumers.

The supply which stood at 3,425 megawatts, MW a week ago has risen to 3,811Mw last Saturday as operators continue to build their capacities after the recent system collapse.

However, report yesterday showed a slight move to 3,877.60MW as against previous record, with lowest generation at 3,763.8MW.

In a similar vein, the country’s power generation had peaked to about 4,351.5MW on Sunday.

Despite the marginal increase, investigations showed that many consumers continue to live in darkness as the current supply showed 8,989Mw below the nation’s 12,800Mw estimated daily national demand.

High frequency constraint

The Presidency report that confirmed the supply stated that, “On May 13, 2017, average power sent out was 3811Wh/hour (up by 93MWh/h). The reported gas constraint was 1879MW.”

“The reported line constraint was 200MW. The reported high frequency constraint was 0MW. The water management constraint was 260MW. The power sector lost an estimated N1,123,000, 000 on May 13 2017 due to constraints,” it added.

However, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC stated that it has started working with the Ministry of Power, Works and Housing and other stakeholders to implement innovative ways to address the liquidity gap and other issues militating against improved electricity supply in the nation.

“The Commission in recognition of the importance of protecting the interest of electricity customers has rapidly set up 19 Customer Complaints Forum Offices nationwide with over 10 more in the pipeline to be opened this year. The monitoring and enforcement actions have been intensified by the Commission to ensure that the electricity industry operators, especially the DISCO’s comply with the rulings of the NERC Forum Offices and other regulations. A lot of the defaulting DISCOs, including the TCN and some GENCOs have been sanctioned by the Commission. Most of these defaulters have either fully paid the fines or applied for reconsideration. These regulatory oversights of the Commission have tremendously increased the rate of voluntary compliance by the electricity industry operators, especially on issues bordering on customer complaints.”

“There is no doubt that the electricity sector has not achieved the projected level of improvement due to various reasons that are attributable to the operators deficiencies and beyond. These challenges are not peculiar to only Nigeria, but also did occur within 3 to 5 years in similar forms in all other countries that undertook similar power sector reform. The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission is saddled with the responsibility of protecting the interest of both consumers and well as investors when it comes to the issue of electricity pricing as well as electricity supply in Nigeria.

The allegation that the Commission is siding with the operators is simply untrue.”

“As Nigerians are fully aware, the macroeconomic indices such as the rate of inflation and exchange rate have steadily gone up over the last one year. This increase has affected the prices of all other commodities in the country. The purchasing power of Naira has crashed to all time low within the last couple of months. The MYTO methodology (pricing methodology) mandates the Commission to carry out a minor review of the Tariff bi-annually and adjust these exogenous factors that are beyond the control of the investors and the regulators. The official exchange rate in the country has risen from N198.97 to over N305.05 to a dollar,” it added