OpeOluwani Akintayo
06 September 2018, Sweetcrude, Lagos — Nigeria’s power sector’s billing efficiency improved marginally to 77% in the third quarter of 2017, statistics sourced from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC has shown.
Billing system improved to 77% from 76% recorded in the second quarter.
The level of billing efficiency during the third quarter indicated that for every 10kWh of energy received by a DisCo from the transmission company, approximately 2.3kWh is lost due to technical constraint and illegal connection.
In other words, for every ₦10 worth of electricity received by DisCos, ₦2.30 is lost due to poor distribution infrastructure and energy theft.
As regards individual performances, Abuja DisCo had the highest billing efficiency of 83% from 78% in second quarter having received a total of 812GWh and billed 673GWh, while Kaduna DisCo recorded the lowest billing efficiency of 66% from 76% in the previous quarter- it received 440GWh and billed 291GWh.
On a quarter-on-quarter basis, Ikeja DisCo recorded a significant improvement in its billing efficiency moving from 70% in the second quarter to 81% in the third quarter. The utility firm received a total of 807GWh and billed 654GWh.
Other DisCos that recorded improvement in their billing efficiency include Benin from 78% previous quarter to 79% at the third quarter (it received 535GWh and billed 425GWh), Enugu went from 71% to 74 in the third quarter- received 548GWh and billed 405GWh, Ibadan from 71% to 72%- it received energy of 828GWh and billed 597GWh, and Yola from 68% to 70%- received 212GWh and billed 148GWh.
Eko Disco dropped from 86% in second quarter to 82%- it got 721GWh and billed 590GWh, Jos from 72% to 70%- received 344GWh and billed 239GWh, Kano from 83% to 81%- received 445GWh and billed 360GWh, and Port Harcourt from 77% to 76%. The utility firm received 507GWh and billed 387GWh during the quarter under review.
Relative to the immediate past quarter, energy received by (or delivered to) DisCos at their trading points declined by 6% in the third quarter and stood at 6,200GWh.
This decrease is reflective of the difference between the generation in the two quarters. Out of the total 6,200GWh received by DisCos in the third quarter, only 4,768GWh was billed to the end users.
This is lower than 5,009GWh billed in the second quarter of 2017, reflecting the decrease in the generation in the third quarter.
To address the seemingly high losses related to technical and commercial performance, NERC said it is proposing a system change in tariff review procedures, where actual investments by DisCos would be thoroughly verified, evaluated and compared with the proposed investments on which they had been allowed to return.
“A mechanism is to be developed to recover, in the subsequent tariff review, any return received by DisCos on the investments ought to have been made but not. This action is expected to improve the DisCos’ commitment to their network improvement and thereby reduce technical losses”.
To resolve the problem of high commercial losses, NERC said it had already directed DisCos to do asset mapping and tagging customer enumeration in order to identify illegal connection and bring them onto their billing platform.
