DisCos have ‘lived below expectation’

Electricity distribution companies (DisCos) in the country have performed below expectation five years after the privatisation of the power sector.

Chiedu Ugbo, managing director of Niger Delta Power Holding Company (NDPHC), made this known while speaking at the Nextier Power Dialogue in Abuja.

He said the 11 DisCos have still not met their various performance agreements since they took over the power assets on November 1, 2013.

Ugbo said that power generation has recorded a huge success but distribution has failed to live up to expectation.

“On average you can say generation is a huge success. However, because Nigerians don’t have electricity the way they intended if you use generation and distribution, they say it is below expectation. But with generation standing alone, is in my view, a success,” he said.

“For the distribution companies, they have performance targets in terms of the ATC&C (Average Technical, Commercial and Collection) loss reduction, in the number of connections they have to do, number of metering they ought to do and some others within this five-year period.

“Now have they reduced their technical, commercial and collection losses? We all know the answer, because I’ve been doing distribution expansion and rehabilitation work since I took over at the NDPHC but that is what they are supposed to do.

“However, we’ve spent all of our resources doing that for distribution companies which is through government intervention. So I don’t think they’ve met that. Have they done the metering? I think they were supposed to meter about 1.7 million customers, have they done that? These are facts and figures.

“Also, have they done the required expansion work for distribution across the country? Why haven’t they done these things? What does the agreement say? I know they often talk about a cost reflective tariff, but it is not just a figure you pick in the air. There are a number of factors inbuilt in it.”