The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has shown that electricity consumers in the country paid a total of N267.61 billion for electricity in the third quarter of 2023.
The latest report released by NERC at the weekend also showed that due to the absence of a cost reflective tariff, the Federal Government incurred a subsidy cost of N204.59 billion over the same period under review.
According to the report, the total revenue collected by all DisCos in 2023/Q3 was N267.61billion out of the N349.55 billion that was billed to customers which translated to a collection efficiency of 76.56 percent.
“The DISCOs overall collection efficiency increased by +1.02pp from 75.54% recorded in 2023/Q2. This is explained by the fact that although there was a marginal difference in total collections in 2023/Q3 (-0.09%) compared to 2023/Q2 (N267.86 billion), the total billings declined by -1.42% (compared to N354.61 billion in 2023/Q2),” the report said.
The report also revealed that all DISCOs except Eko and Abuja recorded improvements in collection efficiency in 2023/Q3 compared to 2023/Q2.
NERC attributed the overall increase in collection efficiency in 2023/Q3 to the implementation of various collection campaigns by DisCos to improve remittance from post-paid customers.
“The most proven method for reducing collection losses is the installation of meters (especially prepaid meters for non-maximum demand customers).
“Therefore, DisCos are expected to utilise one or more metering frameworks provided for in the NERC MAP and NMMP metering regulation (2021) to improve end-use customer metering in their franchise area.
“This will reduce commercial and collection losses and will ensure the flow of funds to upstream market participants in the sector,” NERC said. .
The regulatory agency noted that the rise in the government’s subsidy obligation meant that “in 2023/Q3, DisCos were only expected to cover 45 percent of the total invoice received from NBET.
The report disclosed that average power generation during the third quarter decreased by 4.02 percent (-176.47MW) from the 4,387.91MW recorded in 2023/Q2 to 4,211.44MW.
“The decrease recorded was primarily driven by the reduced available capacity of 12 out of the 27 grid-connected power plants. Six out of the seven plants with the highest available capacity in 2023/Q2 (Egbin ST, Delta GS, Kainji, Odukpani, Okpai, and Afam VI) recorded decreases in their available generation capacities in 2023/Q3. The highest decreases in available capacity relative to 2023/Q2 were recorded by Odukpani and Okpai plants with -53% and -20% respectively”, it added.
The report noted that the plant availability factor is a critical parameter for evaluating the overall health of the upstream segment of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry ( NESI) in 2023/Q3. The overall plant availability factor of all grid-connected plants was 33.31%; this means more than 2/3rd of the installed capacity in the NESI was not available.
NERC stated that only seven plants had availability factor greater than 50 pet cent. Azura IPP plant had the highest availability factor of 90.04% while Alaoji NIPP had the lowest availability factor of 0.20 per cent.
