NERC To Penalise Discos That Reject Power Allocations

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has issued an order imposing financial penalties on any electricity distribution company that rejects power allotted it by the system operator.

This, it said, was especially when there was no notification ahead of such rejection.

The NERC 139 order entitled, ‘Order on the Imbalance Application Mechanism during the Transitional Electricity Market’ was issued on account of the high incidence of indiscipline by electricity distribution companies, which reject load allocations by the system operator.

The Nigerian electricity supply industry operates on the basis of a sharing formula approved by NERC, which the system operator uses to allocate generated electricity to the distribution companies, many of which have lately been rejecting the allocations.

The commission said in a statement on Tuesday, “Rejection of load allocation, besides causing imbalance in the system, is preventing electricity consumers from realising the maximum benefit of the recent increase in electricity generation. Electricity generation in the country about two weeks ago notched the 4,600 megawatts threshold.

“Where a distribution company has a constraint on its network that will make it unable to receive load, the Disco shall declare such a constraint to the SO a day ahead. Where a Disco fails to give the required notice, it will be penalised.

“Every Disco is obligated to receive load as directed by the SO, even beyond its statutorily allocated load at any time. This additional load will not attract penalty. In allocating additional load to distribution companies, the SO shall take cognisance of historical data on the distribution company’s ability to take power beyond their location.”

The commission noted that the Transmission Company of Nigeria would be sanctioned if rejection of load allocation was caused by constraint in the transmission network.