DisCos raked in N247.33bn revenue in Q1 2023 -NBS

Data from the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that there was a slight increase in the number of total number of customers in the second quarter of 2023 with the number moving to 11.47 million from 11.27 million in the first quarter of 2023, indicting a 1.84 per cent increase. In its Nigeria Electricity Report Q2 2023: Energy Billed, Revenue Generated and Customers By DISCOS, the bureau stated that on a year-on-year basis, customer numbers in Q2 2023 rose by 6.17% from 10.81 million reported in Q2 2022. Similarly, metered customers stood at 5.47 million in Q2 2023, indicating a growth of 3.10% from 5.31 million recorded in the preceding quarter. “On a year-on-year basis, this grew by 10.40% from the figure reported in Q2 2022 which was 4.96 million. In addition, estimated customers during the quarter were 6.00 million, higher by 0.72% from 5.96 million in Q1 2023. “On a year-on-year basis, estimated customers increased by 2.58% in Q2 2023 from 5.85 million in Q2 2022,” it said. The coordinating agency for all statistics in Nigeria added that revenue collected by the DISCOs in Q2 was N263.08 billion from N247.33 billion in Q1 2023. “On a year-on-year basis, revenue generated in the reference period rose by 39.63% from N188.41 billion recorded in Q2 2022. “Electricity supply was 5,909.83 (Gwh) in Q2 2023 from 5,851.87 (Gwh) in the previous quarter. However, on a year-on-year basis, electricity supply increased by 13.06% compared to 5,226.97 (Gwh) reported in Q2 2022,” it said.  

Electricity consumers call for power sector overhaul

Electricity Consumers in the Federal Capital Territory (FCT), have asked the new Minister of Power, Mr. Adebayo Adelabu to overhaul the power sector to ensure stable power supply. The consumers, who spoke in separate interviews in Abuja, said overhauling the sector would improve power supply. The President, Nigeria Consumer Protection Network, Mr. Kunle Olubiyo, said the minister should do a surgical overhaul of the regulatory institutions and ecosystem of the power sector. According to him, the minister should do an appraisal of the performances of all agencies in the last 10 years using benchmarks of Key Performance Indicators (KPIs). Olubiyo also urged Adelabu to engage the best hands as advisers and working team to enable him to achieve the Federal Government’s desire to give its citizens a stable and uninterrupted power supply. He also urged the minister to review the privatization of the sector which he described as long overdue. The minister said 10 years after the privatisation, the exercise had failed to deliver the desired results. He said the review should be done across the value chain of the electricity sector from generation and transmission to distribution. “By doing so, issues relating to increased expansion of the huge metering gaps, sector liquidity challenges and poor remittances culture, load rejection will be addressed. “Other issues such as market shortfalls, tariff shortfalls, payment of generation capacity, and low generation per capita, weak transmission infrastructure resulting in a decline in transmission wheeling capacity and incessant power system collapse and load shedding will also be addressed’’, he said.  According to him, load rejection by electricity distribution licensees at the downstream sub-sector, poor quality of services, and near zero governance structure will be eliminated. Also, the President, the Association For Public Policy Analysis, Mr. Princewill Okorie, said the privatisation of the power sector was meant to break the control of electricity generation and distribution from the government. Okorie said the privatisation was to ensure an adequate, regular, and stable supply of electricity to the consumer at a reasonable cost. He said unfortunately, the implementation of privatisation policy in the sector began to exclude consumer groups whose interest, satisfaction, and willingness to pay was seen as the attraction of the policy. Okorie said tariff reviews have taken place severally since 2013 when the privatisation commenced, adding that consumer satisfaction impact evaluation and assessment was hardly carried out. “We are appealing to the minister of power to support the delivery of people-oriented and consumer-protective power policies to Nigerians in the electricity sector,” he said. On his part, an electricity consumer, Mr. Reuben Okoro, said Nigerians expect the minister to deliver stable electricity to enable them to do their businesses without relying on generators. Okoro, who is a welder resident in Lugbe, FCT, said the minister should overhaul the entire power sector starting from generation to distribution. A Fashion Designer in Area 3, Garki, FCT, Mrs Nosayaba Odigie, also wanted the minister to look into the issue of epileptic power supply. Odigie said if the country was able to address the challenges in the sector all other things would fall in place.

Complaints over services, metering decline, says NERC

In the first quarter of 2023, Nigeria’s eleven power distribution companies (Discos) recorded a total of 249,683 complaints from consumers regarding service interruptions, metering, and billing issues, as revealed by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). The regulatory body disclosed that the DisCos successfully resolved 229,101 of these complaints, achieving a commendable resolution rate of 91.76%, surpassing the 91.38% rate recorded in the previous quarter of 2022. The cumulative consumer complaints in 2023/Q1 were 4.44% lower than those reported in 2022/Q4, amounting to 11,595 fewer grievances. Among the issues raised, metering, billing, and service interruption constituted the majority, contributing to over 79% of the total complaints for the quarter. During this period, the average available generation capacity reached 4,605.72MW, with an average hourly generation of 4,334.41MWh/h. The quarter’s total generation amounted to 9,350.23GWh from 26 grid-connected generating plants across the nation. Comparing 2023/Q1 to 2022/Q4, the average available generation capacity experienced a growth of 2.27%, rising from 4,503.59MW to 4,605.72MW. The enhancement was driven by improved availability in eleven of the twenty-six grid-connected power plants. Notably, the Egbin plant exhibited substantial progress, with a remarkable 48.48% increase in available capacity, climbing from 476MW to 706MW. However, the remaining 15 plants encountered minor declines in available capacity, with only Delta Gas showing a notable drop exceeding 10%, at -13.51%.

Transcorp’s generating capacity to hit 1200MW by December

Transcorp Group has said it hopes to raise Nigeria’s power capacity by 300MW by the end of 2023.  Speaking on AriseTV, Group Chief Executive Officer of Transcorp Group, Owen Omogiafo, said that resounding the gas challenge will enable the company to achieve its milestone.  According to the Transcorp GCEO, despite the gas and transmission challenges, the company still witnessed an impressive improvement in its power business in the first six months of this year (2023). “Transcorp has an installed generation capacity of nearly 2000MW, and in the first half of the year, we focused greatly on improving our mechanical available capacity and we took our capacity to about 900MW.  “There were still some challenges with gas and transmission, but notwithstanding that, we saw a great improvement in our power business. Going by the strategy we are working with now, by year end, we will have about 1,200MW of available capacity.” On the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) acquisition, Omogiafo explained that Transcorp as part of a consortium that acquired a 60 per cent stake in AEDC was driven by the need to drive Nigeria’s economic recovery as no industry or sector can operate without power.  Experts have opined that lack of a stable power supply continues to be a drawback to the country’s development.  Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN) has said that its members spent the sum of N144.5 billion on alternative power sources in 2022.  She noted that the power sector is critical if the country’s real sector is economic growth.