The Federal Government has directed the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to revoke licenses of underperforming electricity distribution companies (DISCOs).
This directive was issued by the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, who castigated the DisCos for failing to enhance supply despite ample power availability on the national grid.
Adelabu tasked NERC to explore innovative measures to compel DisCos to enhance supply, including imposing stringent sanctions on utilities that fail to utilize their allocations and considering the outright cancellation of licenses.
He hinted that there may be a need to restructure franchise areas covered by DISCOs which presently were excessively large, in order to establish smaller DISCOs, each restricted to operating within a single state.
Adelabu also highlighted ongoing discussions with the Chairman of NERC to address performance issues among electricity distribution companies nationwide.
The Minister outlined various strategies to address the distribution crisis, including capitalization of DISCOs to boost infrastructure, restructuring along state lines for manageability, and issuing new franchises to smaller companies to serve underserved areas.
Adelabu pledged that government would work towards increasing power generation from 4000MW to 6000MW within the next six months, with the aim of alleviating the ongoing rationing of electricity across the country
(C) ControlTV 2024.
