Power consumers pay N267.86 billion in electricity bills despite economic hardship – NERC report

Despite facing economic challenges, power consumers in Nigeria made payments totaling N267.86 billion in electricity bills during the second quarter of 2023, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC). This information was disclosed in NERC’s second-quarter 2023 report, which was released on Monday. The report delves into the collection efficiency of power distribution companies during the period under review.

The NERC report highlights that electricity distribution companies managed to collect 75.54% of the total electricity bills during Q2, up from 68.75% in Q1, showing an improvement in collection efficiency. In specific figures, it was noted that the total revenue collected by all distribution companies during Q2 2023 amounted to N267.86 billion, out of N354.61 billion billed to customers. This represents a collection efficiency increase of 6.79 percentage points compared to the previous quarter (Q1 2023), which recorded 68.75% collection efficiency.

The increase in collection efficiency was attributed to various factors, including enhanced metering efforts by distribution companies and the implementation of collection campaigns designed to improve remittances from post-paid customers.

In terms of market remittance, the NERC report revealed that during Q2 2023, the cumulative upstream invoice payable by distribution companies was N194.69 billion. This amount included N154.04 billion for generation costs from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) and N40.65 billion for transmission and administrative services by the market operator. Out of this total, distribution companies collectively remitted N185.36 billion (comprising N152.48 billion for NBET and N32.88 billion for the market operator) with an outstanding balance of N9.32 billion. This resulted in a remittance performance of 95.21% in Q2 2023, a significant improvement compared to the 67.43% recorded in Q1 2023.

Regarding remittance by special and cross-border customers, the report noted that, out of the four international customers served by the market operator, only Transcorp-SBEE made a payment of $1.43 million against an invoice of $2.13 million issued for services rendered in Q2 2023.