NERC: Discos Raked in N291.6bn Revenue in Q1, Cut ATC&C Losses by 5.7%

*Commission bars NBET from entering into new contracts

Emmanuel Addeh in Abuja

A new report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has indicated that power Distribution Companies (Discos) in the country made N291.62 billion in revenue in Q1, 2024.
This is just as the power sector regulator has barred NBET from entering into new contracts.
The newly-released data showed that the N291.2 billion was out of the N368.65 billion billed to customers, translating to a collection efficiency of 79.11 per cent, which represents an increase of over 5.32 per cent when compared to 2023/Q4 of 73.79 per cent.

Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) Loss in 2024/Q1 was 36.36 per cent comprising technical and commercial loss (19.55 per cent) and collection loss (20.83 per cent), the report indicated.
This showed that the ATC&C loss improved by 5.75 per cent compared to 2023/Q4, which was 42.11 per cent.
The ATC&C loss provides a consolidated report of how much revenue a Disco can collect relative to how much it should have collected based on the volume of energy it received and sold to customers. It is the indicator that evaluates the actual energy and revenue loss in electricity distribution systems.

During the quarter, Ikeja was the only Disco that recorded a lower ATC&C of 15.81 per cent than its target of 18.73 per cent, the report added.
The inability of Discos to achieve their respective ATC&C targets meant that they are not able to recover the full revenues they require to provide returns to investors.

In Q1, 2024, the cumulative upstream invoice payable by Discos was N114.12 billion, consisting of N65.96 billion for adjusted generation costs from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and 448.16 billion for transmission and administrative services by the Market Operator (MO), the report stressed.
Out of this amount, the Discos collectively remitted a total sum of N110.62 billion, that is N65.52 billion for NBET and N45.10 billion for MO, with an outstanding balance of N3.50 billion.

According to NERC, this translates to a remittance performance of 96.93 per cent in 2024/Q1 compared to the 69.88 per cent recorded in 2023/Q4.
 The average energy offtake by Discos at their trading points during the period under review was 3,283.87MWh/h, which was a decrease of -429.29MWh/h (11.56 per cent) compared to the 3,713.16MWh/h recorded in 2023/Q4.
In addition, the total energy received by all Discos in 2024/Q1 was 7,171.93GWh, while the energy billed to end-use customers was 5,769.52GWh, translating into an overall billing efficiency of 80.45 per cent.

This represented an increase of 2 per cent relative to the 78.45 per cent recorded in 2023/Q4, NERC stated.
Meanwhile, the power sector regulator has barred NBET from entering into new contracts.
This, it said, was in a bid to steer the electricity market towards bilateral contracting for energy and capacity between generation and/or trading licensees with distribution licensees, thus limiting the fiscal exposure of the federal government to market risks.