The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that international customers failed to settle a $14.19 million electricity bill for the first quarter of 2024.
According to the NERC’s report, none of the four international customers, which include neighboring countries like Benin Republic, Niger, and Togo, made any payments for the electricity exported to them.
The report states, “In 2024/Q1, none of the four (4) international bilateral customers serviced by the MO made any payment against the $14.19 million invoice issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2024/Q1. Similarly, none of the bilateral customers within the country made any payment against the cumulative invoice of N1,860.11 million issued to them by the MO for services rendered in 2024/Q1”
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The report also states that both local and international bilateral electricity customers made payments for previous quarters owed. It noted that the 2 international bilateral customers paid around $5.19 million while 8 bilateral customers within Nigeria paid around N505.71 million.
Discos’ remittance performance in Q1
In the first quarter of 2024, Distribution Companies (DisCos) were billed a total of N114.12 billion for upstream services, which included N65.96 billion for generation costs and N48.16 billion for transmission and administrative services.
The DisCos collectively paid N110.62 billion, leaving an outstanding balance of N3.50 billion. This resulted in a remittance performance of 96.93percent, a significant improvement from the 69.88% recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.
Generation falls by 13%
The report noted that the average available generation capacity across all power plants in the country dropped to 4,249.10MW in Q1 of 2024- reflecting a decrease of 13.68 p (or 673.16MW) compared to the 4,922.26MW recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.
It explained that the decline was caused by reduced generation capacities of 17 of the 27 grid-connected power plants reported in the first quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter.
The report states, “In 2024/Q1, the average hourly generation of available units decreased by -8.22% (-364.25MWh/h) from 4,433.82MWh/h in 2023/Q4 to 4,069.57MWh/h. The total electricity generated in the quarter also decreased by -9.21% 1 (- 901.94GWh) from 9,789.87GWh in 2023/Q4 to 8,887.93GWh (Figure B). The decrease in gross energy generation during the quarter was primarily due to the decrease in the available generation capacities of the grid-connected power plants compared to 2023/Q4.”
Read also: NERC bars NBET from purchase, sale of electricity, to boost competitive electricity market
What you should know
Last year, the federal government reported that international electricity consumers failed to pay approximately $51.26 million to Nigeria for electricity exported to them from the country.
However, in May, the Federal Government mandated system operators in the Nigerian power industry to supply not more than 6% of total available grid generation per hour to international customers or off-takers.
In a recent directive issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to electricity generation companies, the regulator criticized the practice of prioritizing international customers while limiting the offtake by distribution companies (Discos) during grid imbalances, calling it both inefficient and unfair.
Under the new order, electricity generation companies are required to allocate no more than 10% of their generation capacity to international off-takers over the next six months.
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