Yemisi Izuora
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that nationwide power generation has risen to 4387 megawatts (MW) at the weekend raising hope of improved electricity supply.
NERC attributed the rise to the successful completion of repair works on the recently damaged gas facility which provides gas feedstock to thermal generation plants in the country.
“Electricity supply through the national grid is now ramping up as it attains 4,387 megawatts peak generation as at Friday, March 4, 2016 with prospect for further improvement in power supply situation,” the NERC said in a statement from its spokesperson, Dr. Usman Arabi.
According to the statement, the generation recovery follows a drastic dip in the nation’s power generation after peak generation level reached 5,070MW some few weeks ago before it suddenly nosedived due to inadequate gas supply on the main gas pipeline supplying many of the power stations in the south.
The supply shortage was on an account of inability to evacuate condensates and oil produced with the gas because the main oil export pipeline out of Forcados was vandalised two weeks ago.
The commission stated that with the successful repair work on the damaged facility, the system was now ramping up.
Its acting Chief Executive Officer, Dr. Anthony Akah, also in the statement appealed to members of the public to cooperate with electricity industry operators and security agencies to stem the recent incidence of vandalism on electricity installation
He equally warned the electricity distribution companies (Discos) that the momentary downturn in supply should not be used to exploit unmetered electricity customers on estimated billing.
He said: “Customer bills for unmetered customers should be as accurate as possible and reflect their actual consumption. It shall in no circumstance be arbitrarily inflated.
“The reduction in power supply when it lasted affected both metered and unmetered customers. For metered customers, the drop in their consumption will be captured by their meter. For unmetered customers, it is imperative that estimated bills during this period are reflective of their actual consumption.”
He noted that unmetered and estimated customers have the right and option to pay current estimated electricity billing based on their last undisputed bill where there are concerns with the current estimated electricity bills, and asked the Discos to ensure diligence and professionalism in the estimation of unmetered customers based on the provisions of the Billing Estimation Methodology Regulations, 2012.
Akah said that the commission had deployed monitoring teams to report any act of negligence and extortion by the Discos.