The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has disclosed that power Distribution Companies (Discos) in the country lost N77.45 billion potential revenue in the first quarter of 2024.
This is as they ended up raking in N291.62 billion in revenue between January and March 2024 out of a total N368.65 billion they billed electricity customers during the period.
This translated to a collection efficiency of 79.11 per cent, which represents an increase of over 5.32 per cent when compared to 73.79 per cent recorded in Q4 of 2023.
The report further showed tat Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) Loss in 2024/Q1 stood at 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.
