More details into the financial state of the power sector has been revealed by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) / Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET).

The information obtained by energywatchng shows that the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Invoices and payments from generating companies (GENCOs) to distribution companies (DISCOs) and offtakers for 2016 has reflected that an invoice of N27.14bn was issued by the generating companies (GENCOs) to the offtakers while a payment of N2bn was made with a balance N24.96bn recorded at the end of 2016.

The generating companies (GENCOs) issued a total invoice of N331bn to the distribution companies (DISCOs) with the DISCOs share of the total invoice put at N331bn while payment N88.03bn was received with a balance of N242.97bn recorded at the end of the period under review.

Similarly, the generating companies (GENCOs) issued a total invoice of N361.52bn to the offtakers with the offtakers share of the total invoice put at N30.2bn while payment N2bn was received with a balance of N27.39bn recorded at the end of 2016.

The sum of N1.13bn was recorded as the debit note for Net GENCOs imports in 2016.

Further breakdown by energywatchng shows that Egbin generated the most energy in 2016 with a total invoice of N62.5bn which is the total cost of energy generated for 2016, followed by Transcorp Power with a total invoice of N40.4bn, third on the list was Jebba with a total invoice of N26.1 bn.

From the various invoices to the Discos, Egbin received N16.4bn which is 26.24% of total cost of energy generated, while Transcorp Power received N9.6bn (23.64%) and Jebba received N6.1bn (23.37%). Further analysis by energywatchng showed that the Gencos were paid less than 30% of the actual cost of energy generated which is a major cause of the poor generation level currently experience across the country because the Gencos are limited with funds and can’t invest heavily on their plants.

Moreover, amongst the discos’ invoice, Abuja Disco took the highest energy with a total invoice of N44.9bn for the year 2016, seconded by Ikeja Disco with a total invoice of N42.4bn, followed by Ibadan Disco with a total invoice of N41.2bn, Enugu came forth with a total invoice of N36.97bn, Benin Disco had a total invoice of N30.3bn, followed by Port Harcourt Disco and Eko disco, with a total invoice of N29.8bn and N28.5bn respectively.

In the terms of payment performance with respect to their various invoices from the Gencos, Eko Disco came first with total payment of N13.5bn for the year 2016 which is 47.3% of the total cost of the energy used by the disco.

Ikeja Disco took second, with total payment of N29bn (31.6%), followed by Ibadan disco taking third, Abuja disco taking forth, Enugu Disco taking fifth and Benin Disco taking sixth their total respective payment was N12.9bn (31.3%), N13.1bn (29.17%), N9.9bn (26.83%) and N7.5 bn (24.67%).

Further analysis by energywatchng shows that most discos remitted less than 30% of the cost of energy they distributed to their customers which is very poor and not encouraging for the sector. We believe more effort and investment should be channeled towards revenue collection amongst the Discos.

Energywatchng