Togo, Niger, Others Paid Nothing For Electricity Consumed In Q1, 2024 -NERC
By Sunday Etuka, Abuja
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), has disclosed that none of the four (4) international bilateral customers, Niger, Togo, Burkina Faso, and Benin Republic made any payment from the $14.19million invoice issued to them by the Market Operator (MO) for the electricity supplied in the first quarter of 2024.
NERC in its Q1,2024 report also revealed that none of the bilateral customers within the country made any payment against the cumulative invoice of N1,860.11 million issued to them by the MO for services rendered in Q1, 2024.
The Commission, however, disclosed that the licensed Power Distribution Companies (DisCos) operating in the country remitted a total sum of N110.62 billion in Q1, 2024.
It noted that out of the cumulative invoice of N114.12 billion, the DisCos remitted N110.62, with an outstanding balance of N3.50billion.
This translates to a remittance performance of 96.93% in Q1, 2024 compared to the 69.88% recorded in Q4, 2023.
NERC further disclosed that a total of 123,604 meters were installed in Q1, 2024, representing an increase of 8,423 installations (+7.31%) compared to the 115,181 meters installed in Q4, 2023, adding that the new installations increased the net end-user metering rate in the NESI by 0.40pp between Q4, 2023 (44.39%) and Q1, 2024 (44.79%).
It explained that during the quarter, 114, 477 meters (92.62% of the total installations) were a total of installed under the MAP framework, while 14 meters were installed under the NMMP framework.
The Commission said, the Vendor Financed framework accounted for 7, 540-meter installations, while 1,573-meter installations were recorded under the DisCo Financed framework.
The Commission expects the DisCos to utilise a combination of the five (5) meter financing frameworks that have been provided in the 2021 Meter Asset Provider and National Mass Metering Regulations (NERC – R – 113 – 2021) to close their respective metering gaps.
It said, as a safeguard for customers against exploitation due to the lack of meters, it has continued to issue monthly energy caps for all feeders in each DisCo. This, according to the Commission, 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.
According to the NERC report, the DisCos cumulatively received 291,380 complaints from consumers in Q1, 2024, representing a decrease of -19,337 (-6.22%) compared to the 310,717 complaints received in Q4, 2023.
It said, metering, billing, and service interruption were the prevalent issues of customer complaints, accounting for more than 75% of the total complaints during the quarter.
NERC said, the total number of active appeals across the Forum Offices in 2024/Q1 was 2,429 made up of 1,653 new appeals in 2024/Q1 and 776 pending appeals from 2023/Q4.
It said, during the period, the forum panels held seventy-two (72) sittings and resolved 1,398 (57.55%) of the appeals filed at Forum Offices nationwide; the resolution rate was 9.85pp lower than the 67.47% achieved in 2023/Q4.
The Commission said, it would continue to take measures that would ensure a more efficient customer complaint resolution process starting with improvements in the quality of complaint resolution at the DisCos’ Complaint Handling Units (DisCo-CCU).
