The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has fined Cummins Power Generation Nigeria Limited (CPGNL) the sum of at least 10.2 million.
According to NERC, the power company trespassed on the distribution network of Ikeja Electric, by supplying customers on IE’s priority feeders without the approval of the Commission. Ikeja Electric had also accused the company of tampering with the distribution infrastructure.
More Details: NERC said it investigated and found out that CPGNI was supplying electricity to Nigerian Carton and Packaging Manufacturing Company Limited (NICAPACO). More so, NICAPACO connected Fountain of Life Church in lIupeju without the approval of NERC.
NERC said it subsequently issued a Notice of Intention to Commence Enforcement (NICE) to the firm on January 30, 2019. CPGNI didn’t respond to this until February 11, 2019.
CPGNI’s Response: The power company said it applied to NERC on June 28, 2016 for an off-grid generation licence to generate and supply 1.75 megawatts (MW) to NICAPACO following the commission’s procedures. It said there was no objection after 21 days of publishing a notice on the application. The response also noted that NERC did not send any correspondence to the company stating any objections to the application.
Consequently, the power company said it “took NERC’s silence as acceptance, in line with the Executive Order 01 issued by the Vice President for the purpose of ease of doing business.”
Note that NERC recently directed the immediate suspension of electricity supply to NICAPACO from CPGNl’s plants. It also ordered the decommissioning of the distribution infrastructure from NICAPACO to Fountain of Life Church and compensation of the DisCo for the loss.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) recently fined a third party electricity distributor in Lagos, PIPP LVI DisCo Limited the sum of N10,000 for each day that it allegedly supplied electricity illegally to customers that were not within its license terms.
About NERC: NERC is an independent regulatory body with authority for the regulation of the electric power industry in Nigeria. It was instituted primarily to regulate the tariff of Power Generating companies owned or controlled by the government, and any other generating company which has a license for power generation and transmission of energy, and distribution of electricity.
