The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, has ordered the grid operator to cut back supplies to customers in Togo, Benin, including Niger Republic to boost domestic supply.
In a statement issued over the weekend, NERC said that the grid operator’s current approach in managing supply has caused significant hardship for Nigerians because supply under bilateral contracts, including export to international customers, takes priority over supply to domestic customers.
The commision disclosed that power delivery to Nigeria’s neighbours must not exceed six per cent of the total electricity at any given time.
NERC expressed concern about sub-optimal grid dispatch practices, which have impacted the ability of Distribution Companies, to meet their service tariff commitments to end-users.
The statement reads: “The reliance on limiting Discos’ load off-take while prioritising international off-takers and Eligible Customers has proven neither efficient nor equitable.
“The system operator will log and publish hourly readings, enforcing penalties for violations of grid instructions and contracted nominations. Maximum load allocation to international off-takers in each trading hour shall not exceed six per cent of the total available grid generation.
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“The commission hereby orders as follows: The system operator shall develop and present to the commission for approval within seven days from the issuance of this order a pro-rata load-shedding scheme that ensures equitable adjustment to load allocation to all off-takers — Discos, international customers, and eligible customers — in the event of a drop in generation and other under-frequency related grid imbalances necessitating critical grid management.
“The system operator shall implement a framework to log and publish hourly readings and enforce necessary sanctions for violation of grid instructions and contracted nominations by off-takers in line with the grid code and market.
“The aggregate capacity that can be nominated by a generating plant to service international off-takers shall not be more than 10 per cent of its available generation capacity unless in exceptional circumstances a derogation is granted by the commission.
“The system operator and TCN to immediately initiate and install integrated Internet of Things (IoT) meters at all off-take and delivery points of eligible customers, bilateral supplies, cross-border trades, and outgoing 33kV feeders of the Discos to provide real-time visibility of aggregate offtake by grid customers.
“The installation of and streaming of data from the IOT meters should be completed within three months from the date of this order.”
