The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) yesterday confirmed adjustments to electricity tariff regime across ten electricity distribution companies with increases ranging from 5-12 percent.
The adjustment to the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) took effect from February 1, 2022, according the regulations issued by the Commission and posted on its official website on Wednesday night.
Justifying the rise in tariff, NERC stated that it was to “ensure that tariffs payable by consumers are commensurate with and aligned with the quality and availability of power supply committed to customer clusters” by the DisCos.
It also added that the adjustment would ensure that prices charged by the DisCos “are fair to customers” and are sufficient to allow the DisCos “to follow recover the efficient cost of operation including a reasonable return on the capital invested in the business”.
NERC also stated that the adjustment would also “ensure sustained improvement in reliability of supply in line with the DisCos capital expenditure (CAPEX) proposals and performance in improvement plan”.
Checks by Vanguard on the Order for individual DisCos showed that for Abuja DisCo, non-maximum demand (Non-MD) customers in Band A (minimum of 20 hours supply per day) would be billed 8 percent higher while maximum demand (MD) customers in the same band would be charged 1.04 percent lower.
For Non-MD in Band B (minimum of 16hrs per day), tariff rose by 8.8 percent while it remained the same for MD customers in Band B. For Non-MD customers in Band C (minimum of 12hrs per day), tariff rose by 11 percent while MD customers would pay 7 percent more.
Also, for Non-MD customers in Band D (minimum of 8hrs per day), tariff rose by 11.7 percent while those on MD would pay 6.8 percent more. For Non-MD customers in Band E (minimum of 4hrs per day), tariff rose by 12 percent while MD customers in the band would have a reduced tariff of 5.3 percent.
For the poorest consumers (Lifeline: R1) with energy consumption of not more than 50kWh per month, tariff remained frozen at N4.
With the adjustment, NERC has ordered the DisCos to pay 100 percent of invoices issued to them by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and the Market Operator (MO).
The Commission warned that DisCos shall “be liable to relevant penalties/sanctions for failure to meet the minimum remittance requirement in any payment circle under the terms of respective contracts with NBET, MO and the provisions of the Market Rules and Supplementary TEM (Transition Electricity Market) Order”.
The Yola Electricity Distribution Company which was recently sold to a new owners was not captured in the adjustment.
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