The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has increased its electricity price from N68 To N225 per kilowatt hour in the immediate implementation of a new electricity tariff targeting approximately 15% of the commission’s customers.
The Vice Chairman of the Market Competition Rate, Musiliu Oseni, announced this in a press briefing on Wednesday.
Oseni said, “The commission has approved a rate review of N225 per kilowatt hour for just under 15% of the customer population in NERC. So that means that less than 15% of the customers will be affected. And I’m sure you are aware of the number of customers we have in NERC, and these are the customers that have been proven to be enjoying 20 hours average of supply.
“Many of the customers previously classified as Band A customers will not be affected, only less than 15% of the customer population will be affected by this rate review.
“And the reason for this includes, first and foremost, when you look at the state of infrastructure in NERC, the quality of infrastructure in NERC varies from one location to another. There are certain locations where, without any additional investment, the distribution companies and also the transmission companies based on the investment previously made can deliver the minimum of 20 hours per day. But in some locations, there will be a need for improvement in quality of the infrastructure before quality of supply can improve.
“So, the customers that are going to be affected are the customers that are living in locations where no investment is required to meet the 20 hours service, and this constitutes less than 15% of the customer population.”
Oseni however revealed that other customers who will still be paying the non-revised electricity fees will not be getting up to 20 hours average power supply.
Oseni then said that to ensure that those who will be paying the reviewed price will be enjoying sufficient power supply, the NERC has put mechanisms in place.
He said, “There are targets that have been provided for the distribution companies which the commission will monitor and review from time to time to ensure the migration of other customers to better service.”
“As part of the enforcement mechanism for this – because the rate that will be paid which is 225 is just about 3 times the existing rate – the commission is leveraging on technology to ensure that we get access directly to the distribution systems and get the data as the data is being sent from the smart metres that have been installed on the feeders. We are getting it real time or near real time. We don’t give the discos the opportunity of any manipulation of data.”
Ozioma Samuel-Ugwuezi
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