NERC says new electricity tariff not taking off yet; Discos set April date

The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has said the new electricity tariff it announced last week will not take immediate effect, but the power distribution companies have set April 1 as the commencement date.
The NERC has said there won’t be increase in electricity tariff without consultations.
The Chairman of NERC, Prof. James Momoh, said this at a news conference in Abuja on Monday.
Last Saturday, the NERC announced the immediate review of electricity tariffs in the country from January 1.
The order was issued to the 11 electricity distribution companies (DISCos) on December 31, 2019, but published on the Commission’s website on Saturday.
Signed jointly by the Chairman of the Commission, Joseph Momoh, and the Commissioner for Legal, License & Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye, the order was titled “December 2019 MYTO Minor Review Order” for the 11 DISCOs.
The various tariff reviews for all categories of consumers — except those consumers classified as residential (R1) — ranged from 59.7 per cent for consumers in Ikeja to 77.6 per cent in Enugu.
Under the new order, electricity consumers in Ikeja who used to pay about N13.34 per kWh since under the 2015 MYTO when the last review was carried out will from January 1 this year pay N21.80 per kWh, same as their R2 counterparts.
Their counterparts in Enugu who used to pay about N17.42 per kWh will, under the new order, pay about N30.93 kWh from January 1.
Their R2 and R3 counterparts who paid about N19.31 and N27.11 per kWh since 2015, will now be paying N34.28 and N48.12 per kWh.
Residential (R2) and R3 consumers in Ikeja, who have been paying N13.34 and N26.5 per kWh since 2015, will now be paying N21.30 and N21.80 per kWh.
But, according to Momoh, what the commission has done is a tariff review, which is usually done twice a year.
News Agency of Nigeria reports that NERC had on Saturday published new tariffs for the different DisCos and categories of customers on its website which was signed by its chairman and Secretary Prof. James Momoh and Dafe Akpeneye respectively.
The commission said the order super-ceded the earlier one issued on the subject matter, and “the new tariff regime takes effect from January 1, 2020.’’
NERC noted that the order had taken into consideration other actual changes in relevant macroeconomic variables and available generation capacity as at October 31, 2019.
The commission said the order was in line with updating of the Multi Year Tariff Order  operating -2015 Tariff Order for 2019.
According to NERC, this is in line with provisions of the amended MYTO Methodology.
“Projections are made for the variables for year 2020 and beyond based on the best available information.
“The commission, however, based adjustments in the tariff on the relevant data obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria and the National Bureau of Statistics such as average monthly inflation rate of 11.3 per cent, exchange rate of N309.97.’’
It said that projections are made for the variables for Year 2020 and beyond based on the best available information
The commission, however, based adjustments in the tariff on the relevant data it obtained from the Central Bank of Nigeria  and National Bureau of Statistics such as average monthly inflation rate of 11.3 per cent, exchange rate of N309.97.
It also added that it obtained its data on inflation rate from the U.S. inflation which projected 1.8 per cent for the period of January to October 2019.
According to the commission, the price of gas, which is one of the MYTO variables 2.50 dollars per MMBTU and its transportation, is 0.08 dollars per MMBTU.
He said the first minor review of the MYTO was done in June 2019, and “the review we are trying to do in January’’.
“We have done the review and is subject to public consultation and in the next three months, the entire commissioners and myself will be running from place to place to inform Nigerians for consultation.
“We have done our review and we have given a report card of what we saw on all the indices of doing a review. We have not said it is binding tomorrow morning, so we have to do the next thing which is consultation.
“The order is simply an indication of what we have done as a regulator on what it takes to increase or decrease tariff, if at the end of our meeting back and forth, we said no increase and if there is increase it will be based on engagement at the public forum,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) the power distribution companies, Discos, has set the beginning of April.
In a statement, ANED said, “The Tariffs shall remain the same as they presently are (i.e. 2015 levels) until April 1, 2020 when there will be a slight increment to cater for tariff shortfalls which shall be gradually passed on to the consumer until this is fully completed by the end of 2021.
“In view of the foregoing, we state emphatically that there shall be no change or increase in the existing electricity tariff until April 1, 2020 when the new adjusted tariffs shall begin to gradually reflect the dynamism of our macro-economy.”
In another development, Momoh said that NERC in collaboration with Howard University, with support from the National Science Foundation , U.S would be organising an international conference on Power System Operations and Planning 2020
He said that the conference which is scheduled to hold from Jan. 20 to Jan. 23 has as its theme: “Empowering Micro Grid with Smart Grid Attribute to Development’’.
“The conference, a bi-annual event that was first held in 1992 in Nigeria, would focus on challenges in the power sector across the world.
Additional reports by NAN