The electricity distribution companies, DisCos, have improved their revenue collection while reducing losses arising from technical, commercial and general operations.
The National Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, said that the Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection Loss, ATC&C, loss recorded across all the 11 electricity distribution companies in Nigeria declined by 7.98 percentage points to 38.41% in the second quarter of 2023, Q2’23, when compared to 46.39 percent recorded in the preceding quarter, Q1’23.
The breakdown of the NERC’s Q2’23 report shows 18.47 percent of technical and commercial losses and 24.46 percent in collection loss.
This level of ATC&C loss implies that over the course of Q2’23, cumulatively, N38.41 out of every N100.00 worth of energy received by a DisCo was unrecovered due to a combination of inefficient distribution networks, energy theft, low revenue collection and unwillingness of customers to pay their bills.
The report stated: “The financial performance of the DisCos improved between Q1’23 and Q2’23. All the Eleven DisCos recorded a reduction in ATC&C loss in 2023/Q2 compared to 2023/Q1 with the best performers being Kaduna, Ikeja, Ibadan, Eko and Enugu Distribution Company which recorded -14.01percentage points (pp) decline, -13.00pp, -8.16pp, -7.81pp and -6.51pp reductions in ATC&C loss respectively”. The report added, “The Commission is working with all the DisCos to take remedial actions through customer enumeration and increased revenue assurance to improve their ATC&C loss”.
Meanwhile, the Commission issued two new trading licenses in Q2’23. It also issued three (3) new captive power generation permits with an aggregate capacity of 20.06MW and ten (10) mini-grid permits. The Commission also certified four Meter Service Providers and two Meter Asset Providers within the quarter under review.
During the quarter, all the 11 DisCos took less than their available Partially Contracted Capacity, PCC, except Eko Distribution Company which recorded an off take performance of 116.90% and will therefore benefit from reduced wholesale energy cost.
However, on a quarter-on-quarter basis, it showed that the overall energy off take performance of the DisCos increased by 3.18pp to 96.60 percent in Q2’23 relative to the 93.42% performance recorded in Q1’23. Eko DisCo was the top with a 23.44pp increase in off take performance between Q1’23 and Q2’23 while Jos and Kano DisCos recorded decreases of –3.60pp and -0.54pp respectively over the same period.
SOURCE: VANGUARD
