Stable Power Supply Suffers Setback …As GENCOs Threaten Legal Action Against NERC

The recent hand over of
Licences the private sector by the Federal Government to generate power in the country, may hit the brick wall, following the threat by the fresh oweners of Electricity Generation Companies (GENCOs) to drag the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to court over an alleged draft of interim rules and regulatory issues.
The NERC’s General Manager (Marketing and Rates) Abdukadir Shetima, made it open in a two day workshop with the buyers of Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) Thursday in Abuja.
The Tide learnt that GENCO jointly made a petition on Monday last week to reject the proposal, and that NERC and the Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) may have shifted grounds on terms of the sales of the power entities.
It was also leant that GENCOS are demanding conditions that will improve their revenue upon commencement of business and not the provisions of the multi-year Tariff order (MYTO).
The NERC General Manager, interpreted that the new PHCN companies  are in a way requesting for a refund of their monies since they are not comfortable with the latest development.
Shetimma, noted that the agency, proposed the interim rules in the mean time, since the transitional Electricity Market had not Commenced full operation.
He also disagreed with GENCOS that they may likely encounter some losses in tariff, as they claim.
Meanwhile, NERC’s Chairman, Dr Sam Amadi, had made it clear to the new PHCN owners that it was the duty of the commission to write the rules for the power sector and not them.
He appealed with them to make their contributions to the draft interim rules and forget any other thing that would not provide a safe landing ground for them.
Earlier, the minister of power, Prof Chinedu Nebo, had said that consumers and industries  would suffer and resort to coping mechanism, if the power sector fails to meet the power demand due to inefficiency, high losses and other issues.