The federal government has asked
power generation companies (GenCos) to find eligible customers for its product
as the payment for shortfalls might end soon.
Speaking at a workshop on
eligible customer regulation in Abuja on Tuesday, Louis Edozien, permanent
secretary of the ministry of power, works and housing, said it is no longer
sustainable for GenCos to complain of stranded power when there are customers
willing to buy it.
He lamented that no licensed
customer has benefited from the eligible customer policy directive two years
after it was unveiled.
On March 1, 2017, the federal
government approved the sum of N701 billion as power assurance guarantee fund
for the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trader (NBET) to pay for the electricity
produced by the generation companies (GenCos) to the national grid for the
period of two years starting from January 2017 to December, 2018.
“The purpose of this gathering is
to give full effect to the (eligible customer) policy direction unveiled by the
Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, in 2017,” he said.
“With the policy, if you are a
bulk consumer in the power sector and you are not satisfied with the services
you are getting, you’ve been empowered under the Act to buy the power from an
existing licencee and have it transmitted and delivered to you.
“It is a bit disheartening that
though we are almost two years after that policy direction, not one fully
licensed eligible customer is enjoying this regulation. So, I have messages for
all the people here so that we can from today move forward much more expeditiously
to effect what the minister intended almost two years ago.
“I have a message to Gencos, gone
are the days where you could on your own or through your association or
investors agitate about not being paid or not being able to sell your products.
Since 2017, the Federal Government established a policy to pay you where you
are not paid and that policy still subsists.
“But it is also not obtainable
any longer for you to complain about not being able to sell your 2,000
megawatts. Go, find the customers who need it and sell it to them. That is what
this regulation now authorises and empowers you to do. Don’t sit back and
expect that government will perpetually be buying your power. No!”
“Government does not consume your
power; the NBET is not the consumer of your power. Eligible customers are the
consumers of your power, find them, (enter) contract with them. That’s the
essence of this policy.
“The government, through the
payment assurance programme, is paying the generation companies for shortfalls
in payments through the NBET and clearly that is not what the Act intended for
the industry today. And ultimately the government has to exit from this role.”
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