NERC okays July 1 for DisCos new electricity tariff

The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved the applications by power distribution companies for a tariff review, performance improvement and capital expenditure plans for the next five years.

This, it stated, would take effect from July 1st, 2021 and end on June 30, 2026.

The approval is coming barely three days after the Minister of Power, Sale Mamman, had said there would be no significant increase in electricity tariff after the review.

Although the NERC orders issued on Sunday to the different DisCos did not categorically state if consumers would have to pay more for electricity, it simply indicated that more power and prepaid meters would be made available with less power interruption during the period.

Indeed, NERC said the applications were about extraordinary tariff review, Performance Improvement Plans and capital expenditure for the next five years.

For Ikeja Electricity Distribution Plc, IKEDC, NERC said, “This regulatory instrument may be cited as NERC Order on PIP and Extraordinary Tariff Review Application for Ikeja Electricity Distribution Plc (IKEDC).”

It also stated that the IKEDC just like the other DISCOs, applied for the Commission in November 2019 for a review of the provisions for CAPEX in its Multi-Year Tariff Order, MYTO, tariffs to support the implementation of its PIP over the next five years.

It said, “Under the Power Sector Recovery Program, PSRP, it is envisaged that the commission would implement a robust tariff review process aiming at improving performance in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI.

“This process involved a review of CAPEX allowances in MYTO model compliance with PIPs of the DISCOs.

“The approved PIP and Extraordinary Tariff Application shall form the basis for IKEDC to prioritise the implementation of the proposed CAPEX initiatives.

“The approved PIPs shall also form the basis for defining Key Performance Index for IKEDC for the next five years by the Commission with an emphasis on improvement in energy throughout and improving service delivery to customers.”

The IKEDC had proposed to undertake numerous interventions to improve service delivery to customers.

According to the DisCo, over the next five years, the proposed interventions will allow the company to increase the total energy supplied across the IKEDC from the 2019 levels of 4,469Gwh/year to 5,263GWh/year by December 2022. The energy distributor planned to increase the average duration of supply to customers in each tariff band over the same period.

It would also increase platinum cluster from an average of 17 hours per day to a minimum of 20 hours per day, it stated.

The IKEDC announced plans to reduce the average duration of interruptions from 12 hours to 8 hours per month by December 2022.

For the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, it proposed to undertake numerous interventions to improve service delivery to the customers.

Over the next five years, the proposed interventions will allow AEDC to achieve substantial improvement in service delivery but not limited to the following: “Reduce ATC & C losses from the current level of 45 per cent to 19 per cent over five years.

“Achieve 100 per cent metering of customers by installing 698,606 meters over three years + improve customer safety and reduce inadvertent accidents “Increase number of new customers from the current level of 1,214,259 to 3,450,695 over five years.”