There was excitement in the Oke Bareke Ekiti State Government House in Ado-Ekiti yesterday following the nod given to the state’s Electricity Regulatory Board (EERB) by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) to oversight local electricity market.
Top government officials were seen, especially in the Office of the Governor openly discussing the development.
Some who declined to give their names, said a new chapter in electricity generation, distribution and reliability in the state had been opened.
“It’s a welcome development. With it, we can determine electricity tariff. We can be sure of regular power supply and we can be sure that our local companies and artisans produce optimally,” one of them said last night.
Another official gave kudos to Governor Biodun Oyebanji for making the state’s request to have a say in power generation and distribution in the state a reality.
He said: “It is the resilience of the governor that has led to this good news. We have suffered a lot due to power outages. Now, we will be in charge and can determine how the DisCos operate.”
NERC had on Monday announced the state as the second in the country to be granted the mandate to oversee the operation of their electricity market. The first was Enugu.
Under power distribution decentralisation policy, electricity tariff that will be payable in Ekiti State shall be subject to ratification by EERB and all relating protective policy for customers shall be the responsibility of the board.
In a statement by its Chairman, Sanusi Garba and Commissioner in charge of Legal, Licencing and Compliance, Dafe Akpeneye, NERC asked the Oyebanji administration to request Ibadan and Benin electricity distribution companies to set up two subsidiary companies to assume responsibilities for intrastate supply and distribution of electricity in the state.
The incorporation of the firms which will be known IBEDC SubCo and BEDC SubCo must be completed within 60 days from 22 April 2024.
According to the statement, the subsidiary firms shall, among others, apply for and obtain licenses for the intrastate supply and distribution of electricity from the Ekiti State Electricity Regulatory Bureau (EERB).
IBEDC supplies power to some parts of the state while BEDC does to others.
NERC added that all issues relating to the transfer order must be completed by 22 October 2024.
The Electricity Act 2023, empowers states to generate, transmit and distribute power in order to liberalise the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) and also relieve the national grid for safe and optimum supply.
Like it did in the case of Enugu, NERC explained that the nod given Ekiti was in line with the 2023 Electricity Act(EA) and part of the legal requirement to decentralise the operations of Generation companies (Gencos) and DisCos.
NERC added that in spite of the transfer order, it remains the central regulator with regulatory oversight on the inter-state/international generation, transmission, supply, trading and system operations.
The EA mandates any state that intends to establish and regulate intrastate electricity markets to deliver a formal notification of its processes and requests NERC to transfer regulatory authority over electricity operations in the state to the state regulator.
Based on the provisions of the Act, the Ekiti State Government notified NERC and requested the transfer of regulatory oversight of its intrastate electricity market.
“In compliance with the amended Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (CFRN) and the Electricity Act 2023 (Amended), the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC or the Commission) has issued an order to transfer regulatory oversight of the electricity market in Ekiti State from the commission to the Ekiti State Electricity Regulatory Bureau (EERB),” NERC said in the statement.
As of yesterday, the number of states that have so far sought to oversight their electricity markets could not be ascertained by The Nation after several efforts to reach NERC spokesman, Usman Arabi.
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