As they continued to explore the benefits of the revised electricity tariffs and the estimated billing regime to the fullest, electricity distribution companies (DisCos) have continued to rake in increased revenues with their collections rising to N431.16 billion in the second quarter (Q2) of this year.
The new quarterly report from the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for the quarter under review showed that the DisCos’ revenues rose by 79.31% when compared to their collections in the preceding quarter.
According to the report, the revenues were largely sourced from a total customer billing of N543.56 billion and indicates a marginal increase of 0.2 percentage points increase when compared to the Q1 2024’s 79.11%.
The NERC’s report reflected apart from the surge in the DisCos’ revenue accruals, their remittance to the power generation companies (GenCos) also increased during the quarter under review.
For instance, the total upstream invoice payable by DisCos to the upstream subsector operators in Q2 2024 rose to N399.53 billion, comprising N343.76 billion for DRO-adjusted generation costs from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET), and N55.77 billion for services by the Market Operator (MO).
A further analysis of the report showed that the DisCos remitted a total of N318.65 billion, comprising N271.87 billion to NBET and N46.78 billion to the MO, thereby leaving a net balance of N80.88 billion during the quarter (Q2 2024) and reflecting a total remittance performance of 79.76% compared to 96.93% remittance in the preceding quarter.
In addition, the NERC’s report indicated that the four international bilateral customers serviced by the NESI in Q2 2024 paid a cumulative $9.81 million from the invoiced $15.60 million for services rendered.
At the domestic level, the bilateral customers contributed N1.2 billion to the revenues out of the total N1.9 billion invoiced for them during the quarter.
