By Oscarline Onwuemenyi

ABUJA – The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, said last week that it would no longer issue power generation licenses without clear evidence that all necessary inputs are in place to guarantee that the project would actually deliver electricity.

The Chairman of NERC, Dr. Sam Amadi, made this declaration during a press briefing in Abuja, where he also said that the Commission’s has made the final approval of the revised methodology of estimated billing and methodology for connection charges.

He said, “Many of the licensees have not been able to develop or produce power four, five years after receiving the license. Many have their projects in places where they can’t access gas supply or where there are no transmission facilities for evacuation. Going forward, with the bulk trader now in place, the changes going on in the transmission component of the sector, we are now building a system that allows for systematic planning of power. This means that we are no longer going to be licensing people except where the gas, feedstock, transmission and everything is in place.

“And the system operator would have indicated that there is capacity to receive this amount of power or there is need to procure x amount of power and therefore there would be public option. So the regulation which we are putting out, which we have advertised for public comment and we are going to have a public consultation with all industry stakeholders, is to streamline a bulk procurement guideline and that guideline will now tell us how to procure power at the least cost in a competitive way,” Amadi said.

NERC has repeatedly come under fire for the many non-performing power licenses issued by the Commission. The licensees often blame their inactivity on inability to access gas or finances among others.

It has so far issued over 40 licenses to potential Independent Power Producers for the supply of new electricity on-grid generation capacity of more than 10,000MW.

Amadi said he was confident that this new regulation to streamline procurement of power would particularly solve two major problems; one of which is allowing for cheaper cost of power as licenses would be granted only to the entity with the most efficient plan of procuring that power.

“It helps us to have a more systematic way of planning for our power so that when you have a license you are sure that the power would be generated in a place where there is gas and transmission facility or where the plant and the needed facilities are being built at the same time,” he noted.

Consultations with stakeholders in line with NERC’s laws are scheduled for the next two to three weeks.

Meanwhile, NERC in line with the newly revised methodology for connection charges, new customers must now go to DISCOs to get the list of materials needed for connection.

Amadi explained that, “What that means is that henceforth, nobody should be asked to pay any money for connection, but you will be responsible for the cost of connection. It would be their responsibility to get a technician who is approved by the distribution company and that technician would use those materials to connect you.”

He, however, added that the regulation allows distribution companies to vary the materials, such that if for example in difficult terrains, the distribution company can apply to the Commission with a different set of list of materials for approval for them to connect customers in those areas.

“What we have done is remove the facility of conflict and disagreement on how to connect new customers. So there is clarity now. So no distribution company will ask you to pay them money to connect you,” Amadi said.