COVID-19 Cost Us N158bn Revenue In Nine Months-Discos

The Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors has said that electricity firms made a total loss of N158bn during a nine months period covering January to September 2020.

The amount represents 30.38 per cent of the energy billed during the period.

The Association in its latest report said that consumers, of the N520bn billed by the distribution companies in the period, paid N362bn.

According to the Association, there has been a continued increase in Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection loss indicator which is currently at 46.1 percent, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

It said, “The MYTO financial model that determines the tariff has not been adjusted and still considers average ATC&C losses of about 20 per cent for this year.

“The huge gap between the reality and the fiction of the MYTO model is creating a huge shortfall and the real revenue collection is far from the minimum remittance obligations

“Since 2015, there has been no significant improvement in the energy generated and wheeled by TCN (Transmission Company of Nigeria), that is finally received by the Discos. It continues to be flat and is only affected by seasonal effect between the dry and rainy seasons.

“The Disco’s uncertainty on the energy to be received from TCN has become a major threat and it will hurt the core of their Performance Improvement Plans as many of them are based on the projections done by NERC at June’s minor review.”