FG threatens Ikeja electric, IBDC, other discos with sanctions over electricity load rejection

The federal government, via the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), has expressed displeasure over the electricity load rejection by power distribution companies in the country, causing massive blackouts.

NERC threatened to enforce the requisite regulatory actions against the DisCos for failing to meet key performance index (KPIs) for electricity offtake, saying that the disparity between available power capacity and customer demand was too significant.

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The commission revealed in its quarterly report for Q3 2023 that the partial activation contract regime, which became effective in July 2022, defines the target volume of energy to be offloaded by DisCos at any time as their Partially Contracted Power.

Punch reports that the regulator explained that under the regime, DisCos had to take or pay obligations on the PCC; that is, they may pay for available power despite their offtakes.

Per the NERC report, the structure was consistent with international best practices for long-term power procurement and capacity payments for power availability.

It said: “However, the commission continues to observe with concern that many Discos do not take their full PCC due to a combination of technical limitations as well as load rejection by the Discos largely due to commercial reasons, i.e., high losses in certain areas.”

According to NERC, to curtail this practice, it included load offtake as a critical metric in its KPI Order on performance monitoring framework, issued to DisCos effective October 2022.