The Federal Government has committed to invest N72bn for the procurement and installation of equipment to help distribute unused 2,000 MegaWatts (MW) of electricity to consumers in the country.
Babatunde Fashola, the Minister of Power, Works and Housing said this at a news conference in Abuja.
He said the 2,000MWs was from the 7,000MWs that GENCOS could generate and the 5,000 MWs that DisCos could distribute.
According to the minster, the DisCos have complained about inadequate power to distribute.
Fashola, however, said the problem presently was that the DisCos could not distribute all the power that was available.
This, he explained, was leaving the sector with an unused capacity of 2,000 MWs, with an approximately 1,150 MWs projected to come in 2018 and 2019 respectively.
He said government had advertised the process of procuring the equipment and was encouraging responses from original equipment manufacturers, which were being evaluated.
Fashola said government in a bid to help mitigate the challenges of funding in the sector had provided some intervention funds since the privatisation of the sector to the DisCos and GenCos.
The minister noted that government had responded to claims of debts owed by MDAs to DisCos before the coming of the present administration alleged to be in the region of upwards of more than N70 Billion.
“At the cost of government, several hundreds of thousands of bills were painstakingly verified and government ascertained that N27 billion was owed by federal MDAs to DisCos.
“The payment was by a set-off of this amount against the sum of N859 billion owed by DISCOs to Nigerin Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) to reduce that debt.
“Prior to the tenure of this administration and during it, GENCOS and gas suppliers who produce the power were being underpaid by NBET.
“Because DisCos were under collecting or under remitting such that GenCos were getting only about 20 percent of their invoices for power they generated.’’
The minister, who expressed worry over the activities of some operators, said government was acting and would not relent to salvage the challenges in the sector.
“The number of complaints coming to government for meters, which the DISCOs should supply, and for estimated billings, and mass disconnections when no everybody is owing cannot continue.
“Government must act, and will do so, the DisCos bought these assets with their eyes opened, and they must compete to deliver or exit.
“Small businesses which need very little power are not getting enough because the DisCos cannot take the power to them.
“The investment of GENCOs is threatened because they cannot utilise the capacity they have installed.’’
Fashola, therefore, urged the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in line with the law to prevail on the DisCos to improve their distribution equipment and capacity to take up the available 2,000MWs.
