Discos rake in N291bn amid power sector crisis

The electricity distribution companies in Nigeria generated revenue of N291.62bn in the first quarter of 2024 amid the blackout in parts of the country.

This was even as the nation lost 673 megawatts of power generation capacity due to gas shortages during the period.

In a report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, it was stated that the revenue generated by the Discos was out of the N368.65bn billed to customers in the first three months of the year.

“The total revenue collected by all Discos in 2024/Q1 was ₦291.62bn out of ₦368.65bn billed to customers. This translates to a collection efficiency of 79.11 per cent which represents an increase of +5.32 percentage points when compared to 2023/Q4 (73.79 per cent),” NERC stated.

The report revealed that the average available generation capacity across all the 27 plants in the country during the quarter was 4,249.10MW representing a loss of 673.16MW, or a 13.68 per cent decrease compared to the 4,922.26MW recorded in the fourth quarter of 2023.

It said 17 out of the 27 grid-connected plants recorded decreased available generation capacities in Q1 2024 compared to Q42023.

The PUNCH recalls that this was a period when Nigerians experienced a prolonged power crisis as gas companies refused to supply gas to the power-generating companies due to unpaid debts.

In the period under review, the average energy offtake by the DisCos at their trading points was 3,283.87 megawatt-hours, a decrease of 429.29MWh/h compared to the 3,713.16MWh/h recorded in Q42023.

The total energy received by all Discos in 2024/Q1 was 7,171.93 gigawatt-hours, while the energy billed to end-use customers was 5,769.52GWh, translating into an overall billing efficiency of 80.45 per cent. This represents an increase of two per cent relative to the 78.45 per cent recorded in the last quarter of last year.

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