The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), has described as premature the pronouncement by the Bureau of Public Enterprise (BPE), that electricity distribution companies lacked the authority to declare a notice of force majeure in the electricity sector.
Director-General, BPE, Alex Okoh had last week condemned the notice of force majeure by the Discos to the federal government.
In a letter to the Discos, Okoh rejected the claim that there had been changes in law and political force majeure event pursuant to certain clauses in the Performance Agreement which the core investors in the Discos signed with the BPE.
Accordingly, the Bureau warned the DisCos that they would be contravening the law by their notice to declare a force majeure in the electricity sector.
The DisCos action came after Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) issued a statement on Eligible Customer regulation.
ANED’s Executive Director, Research, and Advocacy, Barr. Sunday Oduntan in a signed statement explained that while it did not contest the legitimacy of the Minister of Power, Works, and Housing, Babatunde Fashola’s right to declare Eligible Customers, it believed that the declaration is premature and is inconsistent with the pre-conditions established under the Electric Power Sector Reform Act, EPSRA, 2005.
ANED noted that there was a missing link as the level of competition envisaged for such declaration which ought to be accompanied with sufficient power supply does not currently exist, nor has there been an implementation of the Competition Transition Charge that is specified under the Act.
The Eligible Customer regulation allows for certain customers who consume more than 2 MWhr of electricity per month to leave the Disco network and contract directly with power generators for the supply of power.
The primary objectives of this arrangement are to promote competition and increase the supply of power.
Among other issues which the association said begged for clarification, it explained why the issue of Competition Transition Charge was important.
According to ANED, Eligible Customers are the premium customers that cross-subsidise the cost of providing electricity to the residential class of customers.
Such cross-subsidisation, for some Discos, ANED said, is based on a ratio of N10/kWh of Eligible Customer consumption to N1/kWh of residential class consumption.
The same class of Eligible Customers also contribute an average of 60 percent to Discos’ revenues, it explained.
Mojec, Kaduna Electric sign MoU for distribution transformer supply
Kaduna Electric has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with indigenous meter manufacturing company, Mojec International Limited, for the supply of Distribution Transformer (DT) meters.
Under the agreement, Mojec International Limited is expected to supply Distribution transformer meters to Kaduna Electric.
The Managing Director of the company, Ms. Chantelle Abdul, who stated this during the signing ceremony held in Kaduna said the intervention by the company became necessary in view of the accountability challenge confronting the energy sector.
The Managing Director described the agreement between it and Kaduna as an epoch that would signal the beginning of new experience for electricity consumers in the zone.
Commending the federal government for its support of local meter manufacturers, Chantelle asserted that who MoU bears testimony to government’s commitment to its local content initiative.
She assured the distribution company of its readiness to provide sound quality meters, that would help a great deal in achieving the objective of accurate and fair billing for customers.
She said” We appreciate the effort that goes into the selection process. It means that, for us to have been chosen, they must have seen the capacity in what we can deliver. We want to assure them that we would live up to expectation by providing quality meters that can guarantee good customer’s experience. We know this is the beginning of a long relationship to come and we would not hesitate to deliver meters that of global standard”.
On his or her part, the Chief Executive Officer of Kaduna Electric, Mrs. Maryam Mohammed said the company is indeed proud to enter into an agreement with Mojec International considering its profile and worth in the power sector industry.
He said” We are indeed proud to be associated with Mojec International going by their pedigree and profile in meter manufacturing. We had a lot of them but after careful consideration, we decided to settle for Mojec because what they stand for in ensuing that they provide meters that are of good quality, which to a large extent, can help our customers get a more transparent, fair and accurate bill. We are indeed happy to work with them in helping to strengthen the relationship between us and our customers. As a company, we believe so much in the Nigerian vision and as such committed to supporting any Nigerian company. With this partnership, I am optimistic that we would achieve total metering of our feeders and distribution transformers and proceed further into other areas of mutual interest”.
He said it was necessary that the company continue to invest and commit resources to improve its capacity to meter, correctly and fairly, the consumption patterns of many customers noting that this has always been a serious challenge.
