NERC Begins Process for Electricity Power Tariff

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is shopping for consultants it will engage within a month to determine the rate of affordability of the present tariff paid by consumers across the 11 Electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) and four other areas.
Daily Trust reports that the NERC which regulates the electricity supply value chain has not announced any tariff review since February 2016 even when its practice was to review the tariff every six months.
NERC held consultations in 2017 on changing the duration for reviewing the electricity tariff, but was yet to make any pronouncement. In the new task, NERC expects to initiate an affordable tariff mechanism. This is so as sector operators have clamoured for implementation of reviews for the existing Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2015.
NERC will also engage experts in the valuation of the assets of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).
Our reporter gathered that TCN, in 2017, called for an extraordinary review of its tariff so that it could accelerate its infrastructure expansion plan.
The tasks to be conducted include physical audit and verification and valuation of the assets guided by extant provisions in the MYTO 2015 as approved by NERC.
The NERC will also be engaging consultants that will do an operational and technical audit of the System Operation (SO) and Market Operations (MO) which are sections of the TCN. This is to assess their practices, metering, market settlements in comparison with international practices, the market rules and the Grid Code guiding their operations in Nigeria.
For the new Meter Asset Providers (MAP) regulation which came into force on April 3, NERC is seeking to engage consultants to conduct audit and outcome procurement process by DisCos. NERC, this month, called for interested firms to apply for the ‘No Objection’ Permit to qualify as MAP which can be engaged by a DisCo, Daily Trust learnt.
Stakeholders at a NERC consultation in Abuja, last November, decried poor data available for the commission to make informed and independent decisions in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI). To tackle this deficit, record of publication by NERC shows that it is also engaging experts after May 17, 2018, to design a data aggregation platform and revenue assurance system for it.
The data will focus on capturing customer enumeration by the 11 DisCos, new customer connection, customer complaints tracking data, metering roll-out and prepaid meter vending. The other data aggregation areas will be on customer billing, energy flow and DisCo payment notification.
Daily Trust