Nigerians have scored the electricity distribution companies (Discos) low in overall performance delivery, although operators and stakeholders agreed there have been improvements in many areas.
The Federal Government unbundled the power sector and consequently licensed Discos in 2013.
Consumers sampled by The Nation, expressed disappointment with the Discos in areas of meter acquisition, crazy billing (for unmetered customers), poor response to repairs of electrical faults, indirect transferring of purchase, maintenance or replacement of electrical equipment and gadgets like transformers, cables, among others to consumers.
For Jacob Oshowale, a resident of Cameroon Street, Mushin, Lagos State, under the Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC), the inability of the Disco to replace his faulty meter after over nine months has remained a pain to him. This, he told The Nation, has been further compounded with the slamming of an N152,164 on him by EKEDC to make up for “all the past units that were not correctly paid for because the meter had not been working properly as the meter had been developing the fault gradually.” The story is not different for communities in Akute, Ogun State, under the Ikeja Electric (IE) jurisdiction. Several times, communities in this axis, especially those in the Temidire Estate CDA, have had to contribute money for the repair of faulty cables and fuse replacement in their community. And in instances where such contributions were not forthcoming, the communities were left in darkness for weeks.
A resident of One Love and Progress Community Development Association (CDA) and Orile Onjuwon CDA, both in Mosa Onjuwon, Ilogbo, Ota, Ogun State, Babatunde Ogundare, told The Nation that his community has resorted to self-help having been neglected by the Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company (IBEDC) for several years. He explained that the community on its own purchased two transformers at over N3.3 million and has spent over N2 million buying cables, yet, the communities are still in darkness because the transformers are yet to be energized.
“We have two transformers, which cost us over N3.3million- one cost N1.9m and the other cost us N1.4 million. For cables and some poles, we have spent over N2 million. Sadly, we have not been able to energize it due to some financial constraints to purchase some items. The fact is that IBEDC has been very unfair to us. We are aware that it is their responsibility to provide these items, but they didn’t. We provided it ourselves and yet they are still unable to come to energize it for us. Now in the future, they will cite one law or regulation and lay claim to these items we bought with our own sweat,” he said.
A seemingly frustrated Ogundare is convinced that while the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), may be shouting itself to the rooftops, educating electricity consumers on their rights and obligations of the Discos as contained in the regulation document from the Commission as enshrined in the Electric Power Sector Reform Act (EPSRA), 2005, which places the responsibility of buying, replacing or repairing electricity transformers, poles and related equipment on the 11 DisCos, sadly, as regulator of the industry, NERC, he said, has only been barking but not biting.
His submission to NERC is based on a letter sent by his community to the Commission, appealing to it to intervene in the situation between his community and IBEDC over a year ago which he said has not been responded to by the NERC; neither has the IBEDC taken a step to discharge their responsibility towards the community. “By law, all the DisCos have the responsibility of repairing or replacing damaged electrical equipment used on their networks; but this is not the case as we have seen so far. Unfortunately, the regulator, NERC, has not been seen to be imposing heavy sanctions for the Disco’s dereliction of duty in this regard. NERC is appearing to be a toothless bulldog,” Ogundare submitted.
But Ogundare’s position on NERC may be contested. For instance, as a safeguard for customers against exploitation due to the lack of meters, the Commission said it has continued to issue monthly energy caps for all feeders in each DisCo. “This sets the maximum amount of energy that may be billed to an unmetered customer for the respective month based on gross energy received by the DisCo and consumption by metered customers,” NERC said.
And while the consumers are lamenting over their predicament, on the contrary, the Discos, are however of the opinion that they have performed well in the circumstance. And going by figures reeled out by the NERC, Discos may be smiling to the banks.
The NERC report indicates that in the first half of 2023, the 11 Discos have amassed N514. 95 billion in revenue, representing the highest collection recorded in the period in the past nine years. A breakdown of the NERC data revealed that the DisCos earned N267.86 billion as electricity bills in the second quarter of this year, indicating an 8.4 percent increase from N247.09 collected in the first quarter.
The National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) Electricity Report Q1 2023 which reviewed the performance of the 11 DisCos noted that electricity supply was 5,852 (Gwh) in Q1 2023 from 5,611 (Gwh) in the previous quarter. However, on a year-on-year basis, electricity supply declined by 1.74 percent compared to 5,956 (Gwh) reported in Q1 2022.
Stakeholders in the industry relate the recent increase in DisCos revenue to factors such as better metering technology monitoring, stricter regulatory oversight, higher tariffs, more investments in infrastructure, a larger customer base, and improved collection efficiency.
For instance, NERC records indicate that in the first half of the year, the metering of consumers across the Discos stood at 178,864, representing a 2.04 percent increase compared to the 175,281 meters installed in the first quarter of the year. During the second quarter, NERC revealed that 168,397 meters were installed under the Meter Assets Provider (MAP) framework while 9,302 meters were installed under the National Mass Metering Program (NMMP) framework.
In the aspect of Aggregate Technical, Commercial, and Collection (ATC&C), Discos recorded a Loss of 38.41 percent comprising – technical and commercial loss (18.47 percent) and collection loss (24.46 percent).in the second quarter of this year.
The NERC submitted that the decline in ATC&C loss in this period is a function of the 6.79 percentage point improvement in collection efficiency between the first and second quarters of the year.
ATC&C provides a consolidated report of how much revenue a DisCo is able to 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.
