Nigeria sells electricity to Togo, Burkina Faso, Republic of Benin and Niger Republic.

The Nigerian government has given an order pegging electricity sales to Niger Republic, Benin Republic and Togo at 6 percent.

Nigeria sells electricity to Togo, Burkina Faso, Republic of Benin and Niger Republic

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) issued the order to the System Operator (SO), a department within the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN).

The order signed by the commission’s Chairman, Sanusi Garba and the Vice Chairman, Musiliu Oseni, published on Friday and dated April 29, 2024, became effective from May 1, 2024.

The commission said the order would be effective for an initial period of six months and may be extended as determined by the commission.

The NERC said the order was issued pursuant to the provisions of Section 116 of the Electricity Act (“EA”) 2023, noting that it issued the April Supplementary MYTO-2024 Tariff Order to improve electricity supply and financial sustainability of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (“NESI”) as the industry gradually transits to cost-reflective levels.

“The April 2024 Supplementary MYTO-2024 Tariff Order was issued after detailed validation of service levels to align customer tariffs with commensurate quality of services enjoyed in line with the Service-Based Tariff (“SBT”) framework,” the NERC document stated.

The Commission stated that the objective of the order was to serve as an interim measure to guide the operations of the SO (System Operation) and the TCN to implement SOPs (Standard Operating Procedures) and operational support tools and other requirements to improve transparency and fairness of grid operations in delivering better services to all customers of the transmission system.

Another objective of the order was to place interim caps on capacities supplied to international customers for six months from the effective date of the order, thus minimising the displacement and impact on domestic supply obligations by GenCos and overall risks to the Nigerian Electricity Market, even when there is a limitation in generation.

The NERC ordered, “The SO 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 aggregate capacity that can be nominated by a generating plant to service international off-takers shall not be more than 10% of its available generation capacity unless in exceptional circumstances a derogation is granted by the Commission.

“The System Operator shall henceforth cease to recognise any capacity addition in bilateral transactions between a generator and an off-taker (international off-taker, DisCo, IEDN, EC) without the express approval of the Commission.

“The interim caps on the supply to international customers shall be effective for an initial period of six (6) months from the effective date of this Order.”

The Commission further ordered that the SO and the Market Operator shall file with the Commission within seven days from the effective date of the order, a schedule and copies of all the bilateral (local and international) contracts currently being administered through the grid including the relevant regulatory approvals.

The Commission said, “Any licensee seeking to enter into a contract for the supply of electricity to its off-takers through the national grid shall seek the approval of the Commission including the filing of the relevant purchase and supply agreement.

“The SO (and TCN) shall immediately initiate and install integrated loT meters at all off4ake and delivery points of Eligible Customers, bilateral supplies, cross-border trades and outgoing 33kv feeders of the DisCos to provide real-time/instantaneous visibility of aggregate offtake by grid customers.

“The installation of and streaming of data from the lOT meters should be completed within three months from the date of this Order.

“The SO shall implement as a Condition Precedent for any new transaction the installation of loT meters and data acquisition at offtake and delivery points to ensure real-time/instantaneous visibility of the capacity delivered and off-taken by counterparties in each transaction.”