DisCos performance indicators

Our Reporter

IN 2013, the Federal Government unbundled the Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN).

It handed over 18 utility firms to private investors, raking in $2.5 billion from the transaction involving six Generation Companies (GenCos) and 11 Distribution Companies (Discos).

They are the Kaduna, Kano, Yola, Jos, Abuja, Ibadan, Ikeja, Eko, Benin, Port Harcourt and Enugu Discos.

President Goodluck Jonathan issued the private investors with their share certificates on September 30, 2013.

They took over the assets’ management from November 1, 2013.

According to the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), the government sold the stakes for $1.269bn.

Ten DisCos (excluding Kaduna) were sold at $1.256bn. The government retained 40 per cent of the shares.

Each DisCo paid N1 million as licence fee to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), and paid $75,000 as the licence fee, valid for 10 years.

The performance agreements state that the privatised GenCos were to have added 5,000 megawatts (MW) of electricity to the national grid after five years.

The DisCos were to have metered their customers and reduced their Aggregate Technical Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses in the first five years.

NERC said last December that only three out 11 Discos had metered more than 50 per cent of electricity customers under their coverage areas as at June 2019.

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The DisCos were Abuja Electricity Distribution Company, Benin Electricity Distribution Company and Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company.

The regulator made this known in its Second Quarter 2019 Report.

The report indicated that out of 8,881,443 registered active electricity customers, only 3,811,729 (42.92 per cent) had been metered, indicating that 57.08 per cent of the end-use customers were still on estimated billing as at the end of June 2019.

It said: “In comparison to the first quarter of 2019, the numbers of registered and metered customers increased by 40,642 and 17,834, representing 0.46 per cent and 0.47 per cent increases respectively.

“The increase in the number of registered customers is attributable to the on-going enumeration exercise by DisCos through which illegal consumers of electricity are brought onto the billing platform of the DisCos.”

According to the report, the metering status of the DisCos under the period is: Benin DisCo, 56.52 per cent; Eko, 48.53; Ikeja, 46.23 per cent; Abuja 52.38 per cent and Jos, 33.42 per cent.

Others, NERC added are: Port Harcourt, 67.83 per cent; Ibadan, 38.64 per cent; Kaduna, 22.20 per cent; Kano, 23.92 per cent; Enugu, 44.51 per cent and Yola, 20.67 per cent.