Power crisis: DISCOs may begin to bear repair costs – NERC

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) says power distribution companies (Discos) might soon have to cover the costs of fixing faulty transformers and replacing damaged transmission equipment.

Discos may bear repair costs amid power crisis, says NERC as Nigeria suffered 162 grid collapse since 2013

According to NERC, this move—if it goes through—will push Discos to handle electricity infrastructure more carefully.

Meanwhile, Joy Ogaji, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Power Generation Companies (APGC), revealed that Nigeria has seen 162 grid collapses since 2013.

Both Ogaji and NERC Chairman, Sanusi Garba, spoke during a public hearing on Thursday. The hearing, organized by NERC, aimed to dig into the reasons behind the constant grid failures that have been leaving millions in the dark.

Garba didn’t mince words, pointing out that these collapses hurt not only the quality of electricity supplied to consumers but also threaten the survival of both power generation and distribution companies.

“This can’t go on,” Garba said, making it clear that steps will be taken quickly to stabilize the national grid.

He added, “The reality is that what is truly happening with the national grid is impacting on the viability of not only the Gencos that generate the energy and capacity but also the distribution companies. But most importantly, it’s also impacting the quality of supplies and customers.”

Garba expressed frustration over how one faulty piece of equipment can knock out power across the country.

“Just one piece of equipment had an issue and the whole country is in a blackout. What is your understanding of why it caught fire? We do not spend millions of dollars buying equipment only for you not to have sufficient protection for such equipment to catch fire. We have had recent instances of huge transformers catching fire as if it is just a bale of cotton, so what measures do we have to make sure this does not happen again? You have a prescription but no solution.”

He didn’t stop there. Garba also raised concerns about the impact on manufacturing, saying the sector is struggling without reliable power.

“We read all over the place about manufacturing in Nigeria. I mean, if you cannot deliver the right quality of supply to the real sector, then we’re going to be working on a market that is simply relying on residential customers. And even residential customers don’t consider the performance of the sector good enough.”

He also called out the Discos for dragging their feet on identifying weather-prone feeders, despite repeated instructions.

“This thing that happened last year, last two years, last three years, the last four years happened this year. It is as if we don’t want to move forward intentionally,” he said in exasperation.

Ogaji added that NERC needs to get ahead of these issues, as the grid collapse problem isn’t exactly new.

“The topic for this course, this morning, is not new at all. From the association data taken from 2013 to date, the grid has collapsed 162 times,” Ogaji stated.

She also pointed out that there’s a discrepancy between the data reported by the private sector and what’s being tracked by the commission.

“Before the grid code specified or the switch is up to like four. But we have done an investigation and found out that sometimes the cripple is well over four, even up to ten, that is eating into somebody’s generation that would have fetched them money,” she explained.

On another front, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) disclosed that it had received a security warning from the Office of the National Security Adviser. The advisory directed TCN to limit its operations in areas affected by the vandalism of the Shiroro-Mando transmission line.

TCN warned that the blackout in those areas would drag on due to lingering security concerns.

Freshreporters News reported that vandalism of the Ugwuaji-Apir 330-kilovolt (kV) double circuit transmission line has already plunged parts of the north into darkness for over four days—and there’s no end in sight just yet…[CONTINUE READING HERE]>>