The federal executive council
(FEC) has approved the inclusion of the presidential villa in the eligible
customer policy to ensure uninterrupted power supply to the villa.
In a statement on Friday, Hakeem
Bello, special adviser on communications to Babatunde Fashola, minister of
power, said the approval is aimed at achieving improvement in the electricity
supply and distribution in the country.
According to him, the approval
was made at the FEC meeting on in response to a memorandum submitted by the
minister seeking approval to include the presidential villa in the distribution
expansion programme earlier approved by the council.
The eligible customer regulation,
which was issued by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in
mid-2017, permits electricity customers to buy power directly from the
electricity generation companies (GenCos), other than distribution companies
(DisCos), in line with the provisions of section 27 of the Electric Power
Sector Reform Act 2005.
The programme seeks to enable
unutilised 2000 megawatts (MW) from the GenCos to be distributed to targeted
metered customers.
“The Ministry had earlier
obtained approval from the Bureau of Public Procurement (BPP) following its
letter to the Bureau intimating it of the Council’s approval of the
Distribution Expansion Programme with the intention of the Ministry to procure
civil works that would facilitate uninterrupted power supply to the Aso Rock
Villa and curb the present erratic supply of power in spite of the availability
of power by the Generation Companies (GenCos),” Bello said.
“The project to be executed by
Messrs Dextron Engineering Limited, has a completion period of six months under
the Distribution Expansion Programme. An arrangement has also been put in place
such that a GenCo, North-South Power Company Limited, will procure the
dedicated supply to the Villa from the National Grid while the Abuja Electricity
Distribution Company (AEDC) has indicated interest to ensure success of the
project.”
ENDORSEMENT FOR A STERILE
REGULATION TWO YEARS AFTER INTRODUCTION
In February, the federal
government had asked GenCos to find eligible customers for its stranded power
as the payment for shortfalls might end soon.
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 GenCos to the national grid and as well cover the shortfalls.
The two-year intervention ended in December, 2018.
With the current reality that no
licensed customer has benefitted from the eligible customer policy two years
after it was unveiled, the patronage from the presidency gives a strong
endorsement to the directive, encouraging more buyers, especially manufacturers
who require uninterrupted power supply for industrial use.
This will also encourage GenCos
to produce more energy, as they currently produce less than their installed
capacity of 13,000MW, in as much more eligible customers are ready to buy them.
It will also reduce the constant issue of load rejection by DisCos, as the
rejected energy will be diverted to eligible customers.
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