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Discos to invest N55.69bn this year – BPE

By on July 2, 2014

Electricity distribution companies are to invest a total of N55.69bn ($357.66m) this year, the Bureau of Public Enterprises has said.

The bureau, in a document obtained by our correspondent in Abuja on Monday, stated that the amount was for the 11 privatised Discos.

It listed the power distribution firms as Abuja, Benin, Enugu, Ibadan, Jos, Kaduna, Kano, Eko, Ikeja, Port Harcourt and Yola.

According to the document, Ikeja Disco is expected to invest the highest sum of $58.74m in 2014, while Eko Disco, next on the investment table for the year, is to spend $45.17m.

Yola Disco has the least expected amount of investment for year with $13.13m.

The firms, BPE said, were to make the N55.69bn investments annually for a period of five years, beginning from 2013.

BPE Director-General, Mr. Benjamin Dikki, said the need for improvement in the efficiency of distribution network was the objective of the reforms in not just the Discos but in the entire power sector.

“There is a need to provide people with the basic and affordable infrastructure to enable them to create employment for themselves,” he said.

He explained that the ongoing securitisation arrangement was to mitigate the financial and regulatory risks that investors might face.

Dikki said the Nigerian Electricity Bulk Trading Company Plc and the Nigerian Electricity Liabilities Management Company had been capitalised to stabilise the market in the interim for five to seven years.

“NELMCO is to absorb legacy liabilities and stranded assets as the Power Holding Company of Nigeria successor companies were sold debt free,” he added.

Meanwhile the Discos have continued to complain of not getting the right electricity load allocation from the Transmission Company of the Nigeria but the latter is passing the blame to power generation companies; just as the Gencos are lamenting the continued paucity in gas supply

Only last week, senior officials of the TCN told our correspondent that most of the country’s transmission facilities were dormant as a result of poor electricity generation.

They, however, maintained that there was massive investment in the sector and expressed the hope that power supply would improve once gas supply constraint was addressed.

The Managing Director/Chief Executive Officer, TCN, Mr. Mack Kast, had also told our correspondent that vandalism of gas pipelines was indirectly affecting the transmission arm of the power sector.

This, he said, was limiting the load allocation to Discos and reducing power supply to customers.

“The issue has to do with generation. For instance, the gas issue is there and vandalism of some of the pipelines conveying gas to power plants is another concern affecting power generation,” he said.

 

 

[Punch]