DisCos raise energy collection by N43bn as losses drop to 45%

Ten electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) said they have raised their revenue collection by N43 billion in the last one year, while reducing their Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses to 45 percent.

A statement by the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors (ANED) on Tuesday said from October 2018 to June 2019, the 10 DisCos raised their energy revenue collection to N466bn.

They also raised their collection efficiency (capacity to collect money for energy supplied to customers) by 67 percent.

This was higher than the N423bn they collected from their customers between October 2017 and September 2018 when the collection efficiency was 65 percent.

ANED’s Director of Research and Advocacy, Barrister Sunday Oduntan in the statement said, “This is a reflection of DisCos’ commitment to reduce losses, even within the context of the financial crisis of the power sector.”

Oduntan noted that the DisCos, while increasing their collections by N43bn in a year, by a rate that represents over 10 percent of  improvement, also raised billing efficiency by 5 percent during the period under review.

An analysis of the Key Performance Indicators (KPI) Report the DisCos submitted to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) shows that the DisCos reduced their Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection (ATC&C) losses by 3.6 percent within one year – ATC&C was 49 percent in 2018 and has been reduced to 45 percent in 2019.  The reduction is even more significant, relative to a starting point of 54 percent, at handover, and within the context of liquidity challenges and lack of access to capital for investment.

On the energy delivered to the DisCos, ANED stated that customers were billed for 20,600 gigawatts hour (GWH) of energy from 2017 to 2018, amounting to N650bn, of which N423bn was collected.

However, for the period of 2018 through 2019, the DisCos recorded huge improvement in billings – they billed 21,650GWH of energy totalling N693bn, and collected N466bn.