Power Generation Companies (GenCos) are clamouring for the approval to start selling electricity directly to Nigerians. The power generation companies are seeking to bypass the Distribution Companies (Discos) who supply power to electricity customers within the country.
In a new report, the GenCos urged the Federal Government to implement the Eligible Customer Policy which was initiated in 2017 by the former Minister of Power, Works and Housing, Babatunde Fashola, who is now serving as the Federal Minister of Works and Housing. Saleh Mamman is the current Minister of Power.
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Fashola had declared the Eligible Customer policy which enables power generation companies to sell directly to electricity consumers rather than depend on distribution companies. This policy, according to the report, is in line with the provisions of Section 27 of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act 2005.
Since the privatisation of the power sector in 2013, the supply of the electricity has been divided into several categories: six generation companies, 12 distribution companies covering all 36 Nigerian states, and a national power transmission company.
Each distribution company is responsible for supplying electricity directly to customers, however, the Eligible Customer policy will ensure power generation companies can also perform the duty of the distribution companies.
But operators of the generation companies said the policy hadn’t taken effect fully. One of the operators, Sani Bello, the Chairman of Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited, said the Eligible Customer policy would favour everyone including the government if implemented. Mainstream Energy Solutions Limited is the concessionaire for Kainji and Jebba Hydro Power Plants.
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GenCos to halt power production: In the last week of September, the power generating companies said they would halt the production of electricity across the country if the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company (NBET) persists on its move to slam a 0.75% gas payment administrative charge on them.
Describing the charge as unregulated, the GenCos, under the auspices of the Association of Power Generating Companies (APGC), also threatened to declare force majeure and relieve themselves of all market obligations, if the NBET stuck to its guns.