In the third quarter of 2024, 11 electricity companies in Nigeria earned ₦466.69 billion from customers, even though they had billed them ₦626.02 billion. This means there was a shortage of ₦159.3 billion. This was disclosed in a report by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) released on Friday.
The report showed that, on average, the companies lost 39.10% of their electricity due to technical, commercial, and collection issues. This includes 18.32% from technical problems, and 25.45% from issues with collecting payments. Compared to the second quarter of 2024, when the loss was 34.70%, the situation got worse by 4.40%.
None of the companies met their targets for reducing these losses, as set in the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO). Kaduna’s electricity company had the biggest problem, losing 70.84% of its electricity, while its target was only 25.00%.
In the last three months, all the electricity distribution companies (DisCos) got a total of 7,606.84 GWh of energy. They charged customers for 6,249.21 GWh, which means they were able to bill 82.15% of the energy they received. This is a small drop from the 82.34% they achieved in the previous three months.
Revenue collection efficiency also dropped, with DisCos achieving a collection rate of 74.55% in Q3, down by 4.76 percentage points from the 79.31% recorded in Q2.
The report also showed that six international customers purchasing power from power-generating companies (GenCos) connected to the grid paid a total of $6.49 million in the third quarter of 2024. This is less than the $12.19 million that was billed by the market operators. At the same time, local customers paid ₦1.566 billion, which is less than the ₦2.100 billion that was billed to them.
There were 28 power plants connected to the grid, including 19 that use gas, five that use water, two that use steam, and two that use a mix of gas and steam. The average amount of power these plants could produce grew by 16.04%, going from 4,395.77 MW in the second quarter to 5,100.90 MW in the third quarter.
Additionally, 19 of these power plants had more available power in the third quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter, showing a small improvement in how reliable the grid is.
