OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, has raised concern over low performances by electricity distribution companies, DisCos in the ongoing Meter Assets Providers, MAPs scheme.
The commission raised its objection in a communique issued at the end of its 6th meeting with the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry Stakeholders held in Lagos last week.
According to the statement, NERC said it was bothered about the “abysmal” implementation of customer enumeration, meter roll out targets under the MAP scheme, and cautioned that enforcement action will be taken against non-compliant DisCos.
It noted that only 26,000 customer meters had been installed under the MAP Scheme since its inception on May 1, 2019, emphasising that it is the responsibility of the DisCos to meter their customers.
It directed that DisCos take appropriate measures, including calling up the Performance Bonds entered into with MAPs if need be, to ensure that metering targets are met.
The commission also raised concern about verified incidences of load rejection by DisCos and cautioned against this practice, failing which appropriate enforcement action will be taken.
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It said customer satisfaction surveys will be carried out by the commission as a third party verification thus strengthening data integrity in the NESI, after which it will set up a committee to work out the deficiencies identified on data collection from DisCos and a review carried out by the performance managers of DisCos.
The meeting chaired by NERC’s Chairman, James Momoh, said it will dispatch a team to verify and validate the progress of implementation of interface resolutions reached between TCN and the DisCos. “Any challenges that are specific to the implementation of Interface Agreements between TCN and DisCos shall be escalated to NERC and a timeline communicated by the Commission within which the challenges will be addressed”.
“NERC shall investigate the discrepancies between energy received as reported by MO and NBET. The Commission shall continue to monitor critical feeders in real time in order to check the inconsistencies of energy received and dispatched to consumers by DisCos”.
The need to finalise on the procurement of spinning reserves was re-emphasised and the meeting agreed that TCN will consult with GenCos for the procurement of spinning reserves and report back to the commission within one week.
GenCos highlighted the challenges in the market and it was agreed that the commission will convene a dedicated meeting with them to discuss their issues with respect to payment for generated capacity, gas supply obligations and applicable exchange rates.
