Power generation investors list three problems of Discos, decry monitoring gap
The leadership of Association of Power Generating Companies (APGC), has listed three key challenges frustrating the Nigerian power sector since the sector was privatized. The group however placed, more emphasis on Distribution Companies (Discos).
In an interview, the Executive Secretary of the association, Dr. Joy Ogaji, traced the challenges from the fact that the federal government failed to put in place a sound monitoring agency to supervise post-privatisation era.
According to her, “So one of the problems is lack of strong monitoring platform. Until the Federal Government puts together an impartial, unbiased, knowledgeable, strict and independent agency or body or consultancy to monitor these firms along with their performance agreements, business agreements and licensing terms, we will not have the results as much as we expect”.
“Secondly, we must have an independent regulator. If today the regulator wants to implement sanction and he gets a call from the high and mighty not to do it, it becomes incapacitated. So we need a regulator that wields the big stick as we see in other jurisdictions.
“Thirdly, we must understand that power is no longer a social infrastructure. The Federal Government should inform Nigerians that power is like the telecommunication sector now. They should use electricity as a luxury good only if they can afford it, it is no longer a social good. Fourthly, we should separate politics from electricity. In some quarters, they call it corruption but I prefer to call it politics,” she explained.
Other critical issues still hobbling the industry according to her include, the politics of metering, power outages, safe and efficient network, improved customer services and a fair tariff/billing system.
Business Hilights investigations showed that even though the Generating Companies (Gencos) have recorded increase in power generation, consumers say they are yet to feel the impact of that. Industry records show power generation was at 3,800 megawatts (mw) at takeover and now, it is just above 4,000mw with an available capacity of 8,500mw. Transmission is now about 5,000mw wheeling capacity and the distribution network capability is about 4,000mw.
It would be recalled that part of the critical terms and handed down to Discos in their Performance Agreements with the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE), include steady investment to reduce the Aggregate Technical, Collection and Commercial (ATC&C) losses, speed up metering of customers and phase out estimated billing, and strengthen their networks to reduce electrical accidents.
It is just 17 months closer to the target expiration and many customers are concerned as they are yet to see pointers to these anticipated improvements.
