The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) said the 11 Distribution Companies (DisCos) have reduced customers metering gap by 2.2 million since the power sector was privatised in 2013.

ANED’s Director of Advocacy and Research,  Barrister Sunday Olurotimi Oduntan disclosed this yesterday at a workshop for energy journalists in Abuja.

Oduntan who spoke on the impact of privatisation on the power sector said the private investors met a 5m metering gap in the sector and we’re able to reduce it to 2.8m.

Speaking on the recent approval by the federal government to pay the N2.6 billion electricity supply debts owed by Ministries, Departments and Agencies (MDAs), Oduntan said the money was not coming to the DisCos but that government will use it to offset part of their N500bn energy debt with the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET).

He said,  “That money is going to NBET to help pay part of our debts,” adding that it may not trigger any immediate investment.

On load rejection, the spokesman for the 11 DisCos’ group said the DisCos actually reject electricity sent to them for their customers because the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN)  dump the energy where it may not be commercially viable to the DisCos.

“It is true that we sometimes reject load but it is not often and it is because TCN gives us electricity where it is not commercially viable,” Oduntan said.

He said the firms took business decision to give more supply to places where the customers pay bills promptly and record low cases of energy theft to recoup the cost of energy production and distribution in the electricity value chain.

ANED which commended the bidding process during the last privatisation in 2013 however noted that the previous governments did not do much to give Nigerians power supply.

“Objectively,  I will say the current government is doing more than the last governments to improve the power sector,” he noted.

-DailyTrust