DisCos Fail To Remit N128 Billion In Six Months

Reports of the Federal Government’s power sector regulator have shown that power distribution companies did not remit a total of N128.3 billion to Nigeria's electricity market between January and June 2022.

Figures obtained from the second quarter 2022 report of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, which was released on Thursday, indicated that the power firms did not remit N58.32 billion in the second quarter of last year.

Also, the first quarter report of the commission, showed that Discos failed to remit N69.94 billion to the country’s electricity market during the review period.

The power sector regulator said the power firms did not make the outstanding remittances to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc and the Market Operator, an arm of the Transmission Company of Nigeria.

Providing an explanation on power market remittance in the second quarter, NERC stated that the combined invoices from the NBET and MO to the Discos in Q2 2022 was N185.01 billion,  split into generation costs – N149.89 billion, while transmission and administrative services were put at N35.12 billion.

“Out of this amount, the Discos collectively remitted a total sum of N126.69 billion (N102.35bn for NBET and N24.34bn for MO) with an outstanding balance of N58.32 billion,” the report stated.

It added, “This corresponds to a remittance performance of 68.48 per cent during the quarter.

"Poor remittance is a direct consequence of the Discos recording higher than allowed ATC&C (Average Technical Commercial and Collection) performance as established above.”