Home News 5 Things to Know about Unbundling DISCOs To End Power Outages in Nigeria
The hammer is coming down on PHCN’s entities that have plunged Nigerians into darkness for a decade of power outage. But you need to grasp the fine details of the process so you don’t grope in info darkness to boot.
It’s like a deja vu.
In 2013, the federal government dismantled the National Electric Power Authority for the same reason. And the Power Holding Company that emerged with its DISCOs, GENCOs have gone belly up. Banks and other lenders have taken over many of the DISCOs in particular. The promoters of the companies lack the expertise, and so failed to max out the loans they took.
UBA, Fidelity Bank, and AMCON now run the Ibadan, Abuja, and Benin DISCOs. But fund managers and electricity distribution don’t seem a good fit. That’s why power outages have now become a daily experience.
As Power Minister AdebayoAdelabu said before the Senate a day ago, the government is not reversing the privatization. It’s only the service companies that will further break down for better management and productivity.
Here 5 things the fresh unbundling entails
It’s going to affect only the DISCOs—Distribution Companies
The unbundling will happen along state lines. States who invested in the DISCOs during privatization will now have a say in managing the companies. The Ibadan Disco has been struggling with seven states when it can’t even distribute well to one state.
There will be franchising to ease the problem of a DISCO serving markets bigger than what it has the capacity to serve. Smaller and nimbler DISCOs will have the license to serve the unreached.
Sanctions will come in handy, too. The minister said the National Electricity Regulator will have no alternative than to whack non-performing license holders.
For metering, President Bola Tinubu’s Presidential Metering Council which the power minister chairs will be distributing two million meters every year. The eight-million metering gap uncovered during the privatization still yawns after a decade—and a $200-million metering contract that turned into a drain pipe.
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