By Ignatius Ushie
Power Generation Companies (GenCos) have decried the huge burden they bear as the distribution companies (DisCos) sustain energy rejection, by only paying for what they wish to take daily.
In a statement made available to Transport Day in Abuja, the Executive Secretary of Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC) Dr. Joy Ogaji accused the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) of complicity.
According to her,” In every electricity market, this nominated capacity is paid for and with consideration for the supposed capacity as prompted by SO’s instructions. A reasonable return on capital invested in business is a critical incentive for continued improvement in technical capacity as well as quality of service” she said.
The ES, however explained that in 2015, “NERC in preparing for the Transition Electricity Market (TEM) came up with obnoxious new capacity definition entrenched in the enabling TEM supplementing order No. NERC/15/0011 dated 18th March, 2015”.
She said the new NERC rule meant that “GenCos can only be paid for what the system could take and not what GenCos are willing to sell. NERC went on to direct that the metered energy be converted into capacity for billing. This regulatory directive, on a monthly basis brings down the actual billable mobilized GenCos capacity, leading to the DisCos billed less. It is believed that this reduction of capacity during billing was instigated by the DisCos and approved by the regulators”, she alleged.
