Yemisi Izuora
The Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC has confirmed that a total of 171,107 meters were installed in 2023/Q1.
This represents an increase of 6,495 installations (+3.95%) compared to the
164,612 meters installed in 2022/Q4. The new installations resulted in
a 1.06 per cent increase in net end-user metering rate in the NESI between
2022/Q4 (42.25%) and 2023/Q1 (43.31%).
It said that 158,634 meters were
installed under the Meter Asset Provider, MAP intervention while 9,931 meters were installed under the National Mass Metering Program, NMMP scheme.
This is according to the Q1 2023 Electricity report from the Regulator.
The Commission said it plans to enhance its monitoring of metering programs, such as the National Mass Metering Program (NMMP) funded by the Central Bank of Nigeria and the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) scheme, being implemented by the DisCos.
The report also disclosed that Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) collected only ₦247.09 billion in revenue out of the ₦359.38 billion billed to customers in the first quarter of 2023.
This translates to a collection efficiency of 68.75 per cent for the highlighted period.
The report also highlighted the fact that the DisCos cumulative collection efficiency reduced by 4.58 percentage points (pp) from 73.33% in 2022/Q4 to 68.75% in Q1/2023.
According to the NERC report, the overall decline in collection efficiency in the first quarter of 2023 could be attributed to the decline in metering electricity consumers.
Although, the Q1/2023 NERC report stated that DisCos will continue to implement various collection campaigns to improve remittance for post-paid customers.
It noted that the low collection efficiency is a major threat to the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI)’s financial sustainability.
According to the Q1/2023 NERC report, the average remittance performance to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) Plc in the highlighted period was 67.62 per cent compared to 77.31 per cent in 2022/Q4.
The Regulator stated that the 32.37 per cent that was not remitted to NBET poses a challenge to the sector.
This is because the shortfall translates to generation companies’ (GenCos) underpayments which could affect their ability to finance critical maintenance activities required for sustaining generation availability.
