The Commission in its fourth quarter 2021 report released yesterday also disclosed that the collection efficiency level of 69.34 percent was lower than the 70.89 percent recorded in the third quarter.
According to the report, the total billing by DisCos increased by N30.12 billion (+11.03%) while the revenue collected increased by only N16.64 billion (+8.60%).
It stated that the combined minimum remittance order, MRO, adjusted invoices from Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, NBET and Market Operator, MO to DisCos in 2021/Q4 was N210.72 billion for generation costs as well as transmission and administrative services.
“Out of this amount, the DisCos collectively remitted a total sum of N149.19 billion with an outstanding balance of N61.53 billion; this represents a remittance performance of 70.80 percent during the quarter.
“Out of the total invoice of N205.18 billion issued by NBET to DisCos, it was expected to receive N160.13 billion under the MRT order but it received only N109.45 billion during the quarter. Overall, the total DisCo remittance performance to NBET was 68.34 percent of the expected MRT for 2021/Q4 compared to 65.08 percent (N100.16 billion remitted against an invoice of N153.90 billion) in 2021/Q3. During 2021/Q4, Eko and Jos DisCos surpassed their MRT to NBET by 32.64 percent (+4.87 billion) and 0.86% (+0.03 billion) respectively”.
NERC reported that the total invoice from MO to DisCos in 2021/Q4 for which a 100 percent remittance was expected was N50.58 billion. However, only N39.75 billion was received from all the DisCos “which means that the MO remittance performance for the quarter was 78.59%. This represents a 2.58 pp increase compared to 76.01% (N41.53 billion remitted against an invoice of N54.64 billion) recorded in 2021/Q3”.
On metering, the Commission admitted the huge metering gap for end-use customers remains a key challenge in the industry.
“A total of 81,084 meters were installed in 2021/Q4 as compared to the 288,154 meters installed in 2021/Q3. The reduction in the number of meter installations in 2021/Q4 was largely driven by the winding down of the NMMP phase zero (0).
“The Commission’s records indicate that, of the 10,514,582 registered energy customers as at December 2021, only 4,773,217 (45.40%) have been metered compared to 42.93% metering as at September 2021”.
It also reported that in 2021/Q4, the average available generation capacity was 5,465.72MW, with the average hourly generation standing at 4,294.02MWh/h while the total quarterly generation was 9,480.21GWh from the 25 generating plants across the country.
