The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has received a warning from the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) against dealing with unlicensed individuals and business concerns on the eligible customer basis.

The eligible customer regulation was developed by NERC to facilitate competition and access to electricity supply for unserved or underserved high-end users in Nigeria. 

It was Introduced in 2017 and it specifies the classes of end-use customers that will be able to directly purchase electricity from licensees other than the sole incumbent distribution licensees, the Distribution Companies (Discos).

The Vice Chairman, NERC, Dr. Musiliu Oseni, said that the TCN could not continue to deal directly with the so-called eligible customers when they had not met the requirements for eligibility.

The TCN said that it had restored the national electricity grid after a total system collapse that occurred Wednesday afternoon.

TCN’s General Manager, Public Affairs, Mrs Ndidi Mbah, said in a statement in Abuja that power was fully restored at 4:59 pm on July 28, after the grid collapse triggered by a sudden drop in system frequency to 47.21Hz.

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NERC said TCN should deal with only those who had fulfilled the eligibility conditions.

He stated that currently NERC had only approved one eligible customer, which is Phoenix in Ogun State, explaining that all the remaining eligible customers recognised by the TCN have not secured approval. 

While stressing that the rules must be followed strictly, he noted that if NERC had not conferred eligibility, any entity doing that was operating illegally. He said the commission had been fair to all parties.

Oseni further stated that NERC was in the process of approving self-reporting apps being developed by vendors that would be able to confirm the number of hours of electricity received by customers.

However, giving details of the power situation, Mbah said in the statement that reports available to TCN showed that about 12:20 pm, two generating units tripped in one generating station while four equally tripped in another generating station, causing a loss of 261MW and 350MW, respectively, bringing the total loss of electricity on the grid to 611MW.

Nigeria’s fragile national power grid collapsed on Wednesday, leaving parts of the country without power supply from the system controlled from Osogbo by the wholly federal government-owned TCN.

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