Power distribution companies have set a new record of N466bn in their yearly revenue collection, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors has said.
ANED, which is the umbrella body for all the Discos, said the revenue collection rose by 10 per cent.
“This 10 per cent increment is even more remarkable if we keep in mind that the energy received from the Transmission Company of Nigeria has only grown +1.5 per cent and therefore 8.5 points of the increment is due to Discos’ performance improvement,” it said in its Discos’ Performance Report for the third quarter of 2019.
The Discos collected a total of N466bn from customers from October 2018 to September 2019, compared to the N423bn collected from October 2017 to September 2018, the ANED data showed.
The power firms received 26,766 gigawatts-hour of electricity from October 2018 to September 2019 and billed the consumers 21,650 GWh (an equivalent of N693bn).
ANED said the uncertainty on the energy to be received from the TCN had become a major threat for Discos in terms of reduction of Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses.
“Ikeja Electric has broken a new record in the ATC&C losses with 24 per cent in June, reducing 6.1 points in one year. Additionally, two other Discos have shown a great improvement in reducing the ATC&C losses in the last 12 months: Kano Electricity Distribution Company Plc reduced 5.8 points and Jos Electricity Distribution Company Plc, 8.3 points,” it said.
According to the report, the collection efficiency peaked in July 2019 at 74.5 per cent and the average of the quarter is a new record of 70 per cent.
ANED said, “Although the energy received by Discos has not increased much (only 1.5 per cent), the improvement of Discos’ performance has reduced the ATC&C losses from 49.2 per cent to 45.6 per cent with an increment in the collection of N43bn, reaching a total of N466bn last year.”
It said Discos’ revenue collection rose to N118bn in Q3 2019 from N105bn in the same quarter of 2018.
“The overall ATC&C losses keep decreasing and have reached a new record of 45.5 per cent. However, some Discos begin to show signs of fatigue in their performance improvement,” ANED said.
Discos have reduced their ATC losses from 22.5 per cent in June 2017 to 19.1 per cent in September 2019, according to the report.
