By CLEMENT NWOJI, Abuja

The Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) has threatened to liquidate any electricity Distribution Company (DisCo) which fails to fulfil its obligations to the Market Operator.

TCN Managing Director, Usman Gur Mohammed, made threat at the weekend in Abuja while giving updates on reform programmes and achievements to donor agencies to acquaint them with the utilization of funds under the administration.

He lamented that the weakest chain in Nigeria Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) has remained the Distribution Companies (DisCos) despite all the assistance being offered to them by government to live up to expectations of Nigerians.

He declared that it was unfortunate that the distribution assets had been handed over “to people who are inefficient, ineffective, and don’t have capacity” to do anything.

While fielding questions on allegations by DisCos that TCN is delivering energy to areas where they are not needed, Mohammed maintained that the grid expansion and increment in energy transmitted to various parts of the country is based on studies carried out on energy needs rather than by mere discretion.

According to him, “We are expanding the grid based on studies rather than on hearsay and we are not putting transformers and equipment where we choose.What we have in the market now is completely under performance on the part of the DisCos.

“So, what we have is that they have a lot of money they are taking and nobody is benchmarking them. They have refused to do the right thing. Their payment to the market should not be discretional. They give to the market what they like and keep what they like even when the tariff is low.
We suppose to determine what they are to pay to the market operator and what to take.

“But look at what we are going to do. Every DisCo that refuse to meet its obligations under the market rule, we are going to deal with them because the market rule is very clear.

“If you refuse to fulfil your obligations under the market rule, the section of the Act is very clear. Sect 74, subsection A and D is very clear that you can actually be liquidated for failure to fulfil your obligations under the market rule.

“I can tell you, there are some DisCos, what they have packed is three times more than what they have invested in the network. So this is the problem that we have.

“When they said we are delivering power to areas where there is no commercial value, they forgot that the license of the DisCos is a universal license and not discriminatory license.

“They suppose to distribute light to everybody, both the rich and the poor. So why are they telling me to give light to the rich and leave the poor.? Is it what they signed for? What they signed is for aggregate technical and commercial losses.

“Guess what? We have handed over assets to people who are inefficient, ineffective, they don’t have capacity, they don’t have anything.”

The TCN managing Director had earlier explained that under a total sum of $1.661 Billion concessionary fund raised by the company from donors, some of the on going projects include: Abuja transmission ring scheme (French Development Agency, $170 million); Nigeria Electricity Transmission Access Project (World Bank, $486 million); Ogun/Lagos Transmission Project (JICA, $238 million).

Other projects include Northern Corridor Transmission Project (AFD and EU, $300 million and €25 million); and Nigeria Transmission Expansion Project (AFDB, $410 million) among others.

The Director of Transmission, Emmanuel Anosike who represented the Permanent Secretary, ministry of power, noted that the TCN has done much work to improve the transmission network just as it has also assisted the DisCos.

He, however, maintained that the donors were expected to provide Nigerian government with suggestions and knowledge on how to further improve not only the transmission network but also the Distribution Company as much of the problems that faced the country is in distribution network.

According to Anosike, I want to say more of the improvements which TCN has done will continue to boost electricity. Before we had your donations, the transmission has not been what it is today until the present management came on board and is doing what you’re seeing today.

“In my own house, the amount of diesel that I buy have reduced and this was because of what TCN has done. I know much of what he has told you about the problems with the DisCos as we have been discussing them in my office.

“But TCN apart from that, has been doing everything it could to assist. The Chairman of NERC, if not that he has left, would have confirmed what I’m saying. We were together sometime in Lagos and we saw what the TCN is doing in order to assist the DisCos.

“Your coming here today is to hear from you what we can do in order to improve more on transmission network and of course help us more with suggestions and knowledge on what we can do in the industry because the TCN has done much work in transmission but where we have problem today is in DisCos.