The Commission in a statement on Monday, November 18, explained that as long as meters were not tempered with by consumers, replacement must be done by the utility company at no cost to the consumers.

Data from NERC showed that as of the end of the second quarter of 2024, 45 percent, or 5.99 million, out of 13.19 million customers in the industry had meters, with seven million customers subjected to estimated billing.

NERC said it “is aware that some Distribution Companies have instructed customers to apply and pay for the replacement of faulty and obsolete meters within their franchise areas. This instruction contravenes the Commission’s Order No. NERC/246/2021 on the Structured Replacement of Faulty and Obsolete end-use Customer Meters in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry. The Order clearly states that no customer with a meter should be forcefully migrated to estimated billing. If any customer’s meter is adjudged by any DisCo to be obsolete or faulty, it is the responsibility of the DisCo to replace the meter free of charge, provided that the fault was not caused by the customer.The Commission restates its commitment to protect customers’ interests and rights by ensuring compliance with established regulatory standards and enforcing regulatory penalties for non-compliance by its licensees”.

In a statement released on Monday, the electricity market operator attributed this development to the appreciation of the naira in the official exchange window.

“Effective from May 6, 2024, Band A end-user tariffs have been reviewed to NGN206.8/ kWh under MYTO 2024. This is largely driven by the relative appreciation of the Naira in the official foreign exchange window,” the statement read.

In response, Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) have begun reducing tariffs for Band A customers. Notices sent to customers on Monday by the DisCos emphasized that this move aimed to enhance service delivery for customers in the specified category.

Ikeja Electric (IE), in an earlier notice, stated that the reduced electricity tariff for its Band A customers had been adjusted to N206.80 per kilowatt-hour from N225/kWh, as approved by NERC.

“Please be informed of the downward tariff review of our Band A feeders from N225/kwh to N206.80/kwh effective 6th May 2024 with guaranteed availability of 20-24hrs supply daily,” the statement from IE said.

Similarly, Eko Electricity Distribution Company (EKEDC) and the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC) issued similar notices to their customers, aligning with the cost-reflective tariffs framework introduced in 2020.

Tariffs for Bands B, C, D, and E customers remain unchanged. AEDC also confirmed the review of tariffs for Band A customers.

This substantial financial support was aimed at bridging the revenue shortfall in the power sector during the specified period.

NERC’s Q2 2023 report highlighted that the Federal Government allocated N135.23 billion to cover the revenue deficit in the power sector.

This marked a substantial increase of N99.21 billion, equivalent to 275 percent, compared to the N36 billion disbursed in the first quarter of 2023.

The report emphasized that the government’s substantial subsidy commitment in 2023/Q2 was primarily due to the absence of cost-reflective tariffs across all distribution companies.

Additionally, the surge in subsidy expenses during this period can be attributed to the government’s policy of harmonizing the exchange rate.

On average, the government incurred a monthly subsidy obligation of N45.08 billion during Q2 2023. This financial support demonstrates the government’s dedication to ensuring affordable electricity for the populace despite the challenges faced in the power sector.

He also suggested ways in which the legal profession should be saved from moral disaster.

According to him, the Nigerian Law School was established to provide practical knowledge for young lawyers but no longer serving its purpose.

Amadi, who is also the Director, Abuja School of Social and Political Thoughts, made the recommendation at the 2023 endowment launch for the ‘IgbaBoyi’, an Igbo apprenticeship scheme, by Igbo lawyers under the umbrella of Otu Oka-Iwu Abuja.

Present at the event were a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Kanu Agabi (SAN); Senator Ben Obi, who represented Anambra Central in the National Assembly, senior lawyers of Igbo extraction, among others.

While describing the Nigerian legal system as one of the most corrupt in the world, Amadi maintained that the law school is a waste of time and resources, adding that it should be scrapped.

He said, “So, I think that we need to rethink the whole framework of Nigeria. In my view, the law school is failing. It is no longer serving its purpose. The law school is designed to provide technical practical education. So the question I ask is: what are they providing? My view is, that purpose is best served at law firms.

Present at the event were a former Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Kanu Agabi (SAN); Senator Ben Obi, who represented Anambra Central in the National Assembly, senior lawyers of Igbo extraction, among others.

While describing the Nigerian legal system as one of the most corrupt in the world, Amadi maintained that the law school is a waste of time and resources, adding that it should be scrapped.

He said, “So, I think that we need to rethink the whole framework of Nigeria. In my view, the law school is failing. It is no longer serving its purpose. The law school is designed to provide technical practical education. So the question I ask is: what are they providing? My view is, that purpose is best served at law firms.

“Many lawyers who go to law school do not practice. Some of them go into journalism, and broadcasting, or they go and teach in the University. So I would like us to strengthen the university education for lawyers in order for them to have a broad analytical competency.

“In the United States, when you finish your legal education in the university, you do a quick exam for call as lawyer. Here, we can license our universities to take three to six months of special rush courses for our law students to qualify to practice. After that, they go to the chambers where they learn real practice. The only way one can get pupillage is in a law firm.

“What is the law school providing for our young graduates? The law school is not rigorous, either academic or practical. So my view is, we must focus on universities to give robust academic training. Those who want to practice law should go and do some crash courses in the universities to get qualified as lawyers. Then they go to law firms or corporate places to learn corporate law or legal practice.

“Law as practiced is not taught in the law school. Stop the law school and the waste of resources. Accredit universities to do three to six months, just like they do in America. After graduating as a lawyer, you go and take classes and pass the instructions and get called to the bar. Then all the learning will happen at the law firms where senior lawyers now have obligation to train those young lawyers to understand the practice.”

The human rights lawyer also described as a welcome development the idea of replicating the Igbo apprenticeship model where young lawyers would be able to gain valuable internship experience at reputation law firms.

He said the model, now studied at Harvard is a unique way of knowledge transfer and is needed to save the law profession from moral disaster.

Amadi said, “The idea is that lawyers will seek knowledge from the established ones and also, the established lawyers will also be generous enough to support our young people, not just knowledge but in paying them. So what the Igbo lawyers are trying to do is to provide funding to encourage young people so that with the help of the senior lawyers, the junior ones will acquire not just knowledge, but also virtue.

“Today, the law and judiciary are the most corrupt parts of Nigerian society because everybody wants to make money. So I want to say that if we can restore pupillage and make it real and provide incentives for young people to go and learn, then we can save the law profession from a moral disaster. This is a totally disastrous state. The law professional is shameful and undignified because of the behavior of lawyers and judges.

The President of the Nigerian Bar Association, Yakubu Maikyau (SAN), described the Igbo apprenticeship scheme as the best way to transfer skills, character and knowledge.

While declaring NBA’s support for the initiative, Maikyau assured that the scheme would be expanded to become a national mentorship policy of the Federal Government.

He, however, pleaded that the scheme should not be limited to only lawyers of Igbo extraction.

The NBA President said, “If you are the best of lawyers without character, there is no way that intellect is going to transfer or translate into value. So this is a mentorship model. Like I said, it is welcomed into our fold as lawyers, but please let us not limit it to the Igbos. We should extend it to others. We should take it to the north and west because this is something that is going to bring benefit to each and every one of us.”

The app launch event, held in Abuja on Monday, saw Sanusi Garba, Chairperson of NERC, highlight the commission’s commitment to enhancing customer service.

Garba explained that the app aligns with the recently introduced consumer protection regulation, which sets specific timelines for public utilities, especially distribution companies (DisCos), to resolve customer complaints.

He emphasized that the app’s purpose is to aid NERC in monitoring DisCos’ compliance with the regulatory standards.

Originally developed for assessing power supply quality, the app was repurposed to collect real-time data for more effective DisCo monitoring.

Garba encouraged Nigerians to utilize the app for lodging complaints, assuring them of swift responses that would boost their confidence in both the commission and DisCos. He also announced plans for a nationwide rollout to cover all distribution companies.

Christopher Ezeafulukwe, Chairperson of the Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC), commended the collaborative effort behind the app’s launch, emphasizing the positive impact it would have on customers and DisCos.

He noted that customer feedback is crucial for improving services and expressed optimism that the app’s collaboration between the commission, distribution companies, and customers would lead to mutual benefits.

Aisha Mahmud, NERC Commissioner of Consumer Affairs, provided insight into the app’s functionality. She explained that the commission collaborated with DisCos to gather customer data, allowing customers to report outages through web and mobile apps.

Customers can download the app from Apple or Google stores, log their complaints using their meter numbers, and receive confirmation notifications.

The app also facilitates communication between DisCos and affected customers, streamlining the complaint resolution process.

In the statement titled, ‘Customer Protection Regulations, 2023’, and shared on the NERC website on April 20, 2023, the NERC said a DisCo may disconnect supply to a customer’s premises when the client fails to pay the amount billed by the payment date specified on the bill or violates other terms and conditions agreed upon with the firm.

The NERC said that the payment date must be, at least, 10 days after the bill was delivered, and DisCos can then disconnect two working days later.

The NERC said, “The payment date must be, at least, 10 days from the date of the delivery of the bill to the customer. Bills may be delivered physically to the customer’s premises or by some other electronic means, including text messages or electronic mail, as agreed with the customer.

“The period between the payment date and date of scheduled disconnection for nonpayment is not less than two working days after the payment date.

“Any bill correcting a previous inaccurate bill shall have a payment date which is at least 10 working days from the date of delivery of the corrected bill to the customer.”

The regulator added that a customer may be disconnected without notice if he is connected to the DisCo’s network in an unauthorised manner.

DisCos are also empowered to deny a customer’s request for electricity supply if such customers failed to provide a valid means of identification or to pay the security deposit requested by the company.

It said, “Where the customer’s connection is considered to be dangerous to the integrity of the network and/or affects the quality of supply to other customers.

“Where the DisCo is not granted access to read a meter that is located within the customer’s premises.

“Whenever a customer requests a distribution company to disconnect electricity supply to his premises, the distribution company shall disconnect the supply after confirming that the customer’s request will not impact other customers in the premises that require continued supply.

“The distribution company shall ensure that it is able to monitor consumption to the premises of the customer that has requested a disconnection that was not effected due to the impact on other customers in the premises, to assess the customer’s consumption.”

The Vice Chairman/Commissioner of the Market Competition and Rate Division, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), Dr Musiliu Oseninishore disclosed this in Abuja at the 78th 2023 Power Dialogue series themed:”Regulatory Outlook: Looking Back to Go Forward,” organized by the Electricity Hub.

The NERC boss clarified that there was a goal of making both the on-grid and off-grid sectors work together to achieve the Nigerian energy goal.

He said there is a lot of scepticism in committing investment to various projects, increasing the rate of unfinished projects but the government persists in creating new policies and reforming the old ones.

According to him, “The Nigerian power sector is caught between the energy transition process and maintaining the usage of gas to ensure that a large percentage of the country has access to electricity.

“Government has been making investments to ensure rapid electrification process.

“The progress could begin with bilateral contracting whereby the DisCos take responsibility for the power and procurement with a franchisee assisting in the management,” he said.

The dialogue had Dr Musiliu Oseninishore, the Vice Chairman/Commissioner of the Market Competition and Rate Division, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), as the Panellist and Mrs. Dolapo Kukoyi, the Managing Partner at Detail Commercial Solicitors, as the moderator.

He however, complained that high possibility of disruptive technological innovations force the speedy developments of the markets.

The discussion opened with an examination of the Nigerian power sector’s achievement in 2022 as the NERC Chairman highlighted some implementations that NERC has achieved citing the Implementation of the Performance Improvement Plan for DisCos.

He further explained that the Commission has ensured that the necessary investment, like purchasing new transformers was done to improve the performance of DisCos and they were monitoring power plant generators in the country by using the IoT meters deployed by CBN.

On the Challenges of the Nigerian power sector landscape transformation, he noted that mini-grid capacity was very low looking at the risks and investments, adding that several policies have been made to ensure that the energy gap is closed in Nigeria, and the old ones have been reformed to suit the national purpose, he said.

On a question asked by the stakeholder why the commission wrote a letter to the TCN ordering it to terminate all illegal bilateral transactions, the acknowledged the issue but said “some customers went to court to set an injunction against NERC to maintain the status quo.”

The plants are Egbin, Kainji, Azura-Edo IPP, Jebba, Delta, Shiroro, Odukpani, Afam VI and Geregu with a minimum share of 5.76 per cent each.

Statistics obtained from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, on the latest report, ‘State of the Industry NERC Annual Report 2020’, revealed that over-reliance of the grid on the energy supplied by just nine power plants out of 26 might pose a risk to the industry.

This was because downtime in any of them might result in grid instability if there was no adequate reserved capacity from other plants to timely offset adverse impact of any sudden loss of generation from any of the 9 plants, NERC said.

According to the report, the nine power plants accounted for 71.80 per cent of the total electric energy generated in 2020.

Due to its size and availability, Egbin power plant accounted for the highest share,13.54 per cent of the total energy output, followed by Kainji hydropower plant which accounted for 8.31 per cent energy share. Azura Edo, Jebba, Shiroro and Delta were also among the top-six contributors to generate output during 2020.

During the same period, Gbarain power plant accounted for the least share of output contributing 0.24 per cent.

Compared to 2019, the reliance on the aforementioned nine power plants increased by 4.54 percentage points as they only accounted for 67.26 per cent of total generation in 2019.

The NERC said it had commenced the process of gradually activating the industry contracts to provide certainty to the minimum volume of energy expected of each generating plant and properly allocate risks among the industry operators.

This, the Commission said, was expected to lead to incremental growth in power availability and utilisation.

During the year 2020, the available generation capacity of the 26 active plants stood at 6,107MW while the average generation was 4,054MWh, about 5.97 per cent higher than the generation level in 2019.

The industry recorded the highest daily peak generation of 5,520MWh on 30th October 2020.

Nigeria currently generates just a little over 4000MW despite promise to hit at least 5000MW from July 1..

Experts say the country needs at least 30, 000MW to reach sufficiency.

The NERC said complete resolutions of the technical and operational challenges in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry, NESI, remained a top priority.

“We are currently working to ensure that the Payment Assurance Facility for ensuring that GenCos honour their obligation to gas suppliers comes to an end. The Commission is finalising an Escrow Arrangement for the industry that will provide payment security for GenCos and gas suppliers pending full activation of contract obligations,” it said.

The average load factor across all plants stood at 61.74 per cent in 2020, indicating that an average power plant operating in the year 2020 had 61.74 per cent of its available capacity dispatched by the System Operator, SO. This represents a slight increase of 1.06 percentage points from the 60.68 per cent recorded in 2019.

Kanji, Jebba and Shiroro hydro plants, respectively, had 83.60 per cent, 78.73 per cent and 67.59 per cent of their available capacities dispatched by the SO and were respectively first, third and eight plants with the highest dispatch rates.

Thus, NERC said the dispatch rates of the three hydro plants complied with its Order NERC/182/2019, declaring hydropower plants as “must-run” by SO.

The Order was to ensure that hydro plants were efficiently dispatched, given their low tariffs and in consideration of safety associated with spilling of water from dams during the rainy season.

In 2020, Azura power plant had a load factor of 79.74 per cent while Sapele NIPP had the least dispatch rate of 33.71 per cent.

It also revealed that electricity tariffs were raised in February this year, and was quick to, however, state that the tariff payable by some customers in the franchise area of one of the distribution companies was reduced.

This came as power generation companies condemned the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading company, stating that the NBET was failing in its obligations in terms of payment for power generated by the Gencos.

Speaking at a press briefing in Abuja on the challenges in the power sector and other issues, the Chairman, NERC, Sanusi Garba, stated that subsidy on electricity was a policy issue of the Federal Government that had to be halted.

He said, “The role of the commission is to make a determination of the rates that consumers should pay. So we strike a balance between consumers and investors.

“Now subsidy is a policy issue determined by the government. The government will decide that the rates calculated or agreed by the regulator may at this time not be passed on to consumers. It has happened many times.

“In the past four, five years the level of subsidy has gradually been reduced, because you cannot run the electricity market on life support and say that investors cannot get their return on investment until government steps in to provide the required funding.”Garba added, “So that policy decision (stopping electricity subsidy) is as announced by the Minister of Finance. The subsidies have been, at one time as high as N600bn a year, and gradually coming down to about N30bn or so this year.”

On concerns about the rise in electricity tariffs, the NERC boss stated that the adjustment was made in February this year following some economic fundamentals considered by the commission.

“What happened on February 1, 2022, is a minor review of tariff. It is very clear on our website that every six months we will adjust rates to take care of the foreign exchange component of cost and also inflation,” he stated.

Garba described the tariff adjustment as absolutely straightforward, stressing that the distribution companies were meant to inform their customers of the changes.

On the recent blackouts and repeated collapse of the national electricity grid, the NERC chairman said the rupturing of gas pipelines by vandals and routine maintenance works on some power plants contributed to the instability of the country’s power system.

This was further buttressed by the Federal Ministry of Power in a statement issued in Abuja the media aide to the power minister, Sanusi Isa, where it stated that the national grid suffered double system collapse within two days due to so many factors

“The current energy crisis confronting some key sectors of the economy also contributed to the problems we are facing now in the power sector,” the statement read in part. It added, “We are where we are today also because of the increasing vandalism of pipelines that also supply gas to the power plants.

“This too is being resolved in collaboration with the relevant agencies. The NNPC and other gas suppliers are working relentlessly to restore gas supply for optimum power supply.”

This was contained in a statement titled: “Answers to Frequently Asked Questions,” the regulatory agency clearly stated that the Service-Based Tariff (SBT) regime will now commence from the beginning of next month, adding however that the “poor” would not be affected by the expected increase.

This comes three months after the tariff hike implementation slated for July 1 was halted by the National Assembly, which prevailed on the distribution companies to shelve the date to the first quarter of 2021 due to the current economic challenges in Nigeria.

But a NERC document seen by our correspondent on Tuesday showed that electricity customers, except those receiving less than 12 hours of supply, would have to pay more for electricity starting from September 1, 2020.

According to the document, the new tariff is based on the hours of electricity supply available to the customers.

Customers are categorised into maximum demand and non-maximum demand customers, as against the previous categories of residential, commercial and industrial customers, with different bands (A to E) depending on the level of supply.

For Ikeja Electric, a residential customer on single phase receiving a minimum of 12 hours of supply will now pay N42.73 per KWh, up from N21.30 per kWh.

For Eko Electricity Distribution Company, a residential customer on single phase receiving a minimum of 12 hours of supply will now pay N43.01 per kWh, up from N24 per kWh.

For Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, a residential customer on single phase receiving between 12 to 16 hours of supply will now be charged N45.69 per KWh, up from N24.30 per kWh.

Kaduna Electric announced on Twitter on Monday night that non-MD receiving between 12 and 16 hours will be charged N50.10 per KWh, adding that the tariffs for customers receiving less than 12 hours had been temporarily frozen.

“Following consultations and directions on tariff policy, the commission hereby approves a deferment of the applicable tariffs for customers in service bands D and E (that is customers with a service commitment of less than an average of 12 hours supply per day over a period of one month) for the period September 1, 2020 to January 1, 2021,” NERC said.

It said the Discos would only be allowed to charge those customers the new tariffs upon investments that improve the quality of service experience, “thus migrating customers to higher service bands or another order of the commission.”