Electricity Distribution companies across the country have hit back at the transmission Company of Nigeria over the allegation that they rejected 2,495.3 megawatts of electricity within a week.
The distribution companies under the umbrella of Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED), claimed that only 668 MW of energy was unutilized by its members.
Debunking the claim, Sunday Oduntan, Executive Director, Research and Advocacy for the insisted yesterday, in Abuja, that the energy supply to DisCos has been challenged.
According to him, there were many times that there were low supplies of electricity all over the country before the month of April. He said this was as a result of the various factors stated by Minister of Power, Abubakar Aliyu, in his press briefing of March 16. As such, the energy supplied to the distribution end of the value chain has been constrained.
Given a breakdown of how the other sectors in the electricity value chain performed during the period under review, he said, review of the system operator’s report of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), relative to the DisCos’ rejection of 2,495.3 MW on April 2 through April 8, showed inconsistency.
DisCos, he said, did not receive the full value of their nomination for the period due to constraints, adding that for the same period, only 668 MW of energy was unutilised by the DisCos.
He noted: “A further review of the report, for the same period, would indicate that 8,038.70 MW was unutilised or constrained due to gas supply limitations (7,443 MW) and water management issues (595.70 MW).
He stated that the DisCos remain committed to continually improving on electricity supply services, based on the energy made available to them on the grid daily. Additionally, we continue to believe that the challenges of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) can best be resolved with collaboration and alignment of all the interests of the stakeholders, as against finger pointing or sensationalist reporting.”
olusola Bello