Consumers of electricity, especially the home users across the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) have been paying more for electricity since February this year after they got their tariffs approved by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
In some DisCos like AEDC, residential seems to pay more than commercial users while in others like Ikeja, the highest residential and commercial users (Band A) pay less while the others are paying more.
This is according to the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) 2022 approved for the DisCos by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) and implemented in February 2022.
The regulator said the 11 DisCos filed the extra-ordinary tariff review as well as submitted the Performance Improvement Plan (PIP) in April 2021.
NERC said it reviews the tariff every six months to capture inflation rate, forex, US inflation, gas price as of November 2021 and power generation capacity (16.97% for 2021; N412/$1; 4.68%; $2.98 gas price and 5,267 megawatts hour/hour since January 2022).
Analysis of the tariff for Abuja DisCo – AEDC shows that residential customers have their tariffs raised by over N4 per hour from February to December.
AEDC residential customers on Band A (20-hour supply) are paying N56.28 per kilowatts hour (kwh), a N4.53 increase from 51.75kwh paid in January. Band B (18-hour supply) is paying N54.13 per kilowatts hour (kwh), a N4.41 increase from N49.72kwh paid in January.
Those on Band C saw N5 increase, Band D (12 hour) had N9 increase while Band E (4 to 7 hours daily) got N3.5 increase for every hour.
The Band A commercial customers (20-hour) got a slight reduction from N69.70 to N68.97 while the Band B commercial customers remained at N66.65 since January.
In Lagos, Ikeja DisCo raised its Band A residential tariff by N1.65 per hour (N55.87 to N57.52); bands B to E rose by about N3/kwh. The commercial users on Band A are paying N60.12 from N58.59 (N1.53 higher) and the other bands for commercial customers rose by about N3/kwh.
NERC in the approved MYTO 2022, further noted that the current tariff captures a five-year Capital Expenditure (CAPEX) for the DisCos to improve their services. For instance, AEDC is expected to spend 15.169 billion every year, amounting to N75.987bn in five years. Ikeja DisCo got N121.9bn for five years, spending N24.3bn annually.
With the tariffs already operating since February, NERC ordered the 11 DisCos to remit at least 93.4% of their monthly collections every month.
