OpeOluwani Akintayo
Lagos — The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC has ordered the distribution companies, DisCos to resume connecting electricity users to the 33 kilovolts, KV lines already banned by the Nigerian Electricity Management Services Agency, NEMSA.
NEMSA, which had its Act in 2015, issued the ban in 2015 and 2019.
However, after three years of implementing NEMSA order, NERC on July 10, 2020, in a letter- NERC/02/EPM/COMM/1/20/014, ordered the DisCos to ignore the ban.
The NERC had sent a reminder to the effect on June 26, 2020
NEMSA had cited safety concerns and that the act denied more consumers of power supply under the 11KV lines as reasons for the ban.
The Agency had also said use of the 33KV lines by elite homes caused national power grid disturbances resulting in multibillion naira losses.
“None of the regulations has restricted 33KV feeders to delivery of power to injection substations only.
“Therefore, the “directive’ of NEMSA banning 33/0.400KV point load connection is not backed by any regulation and hence is of no effect,” the NERC letter signed by the Chairman, Prof. Momoh said.
“Please be guided accordingly,” Momoh warned after threatening the eleven DisCos to comply or face sanction on their licenses.
