As widespread blackouts persist across Nigeria, tensions have escalated between power generation companies (GenCos) and electricity distribution companies (DisCos), with both sides trading blame over worsening electricity supply.
Power producers have accused DisCos of deliberately rejecting available electricity, a situation they say is leading to massive financial losses and wasted capacity. Speaking on the issue, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Power Generation Companies, Joy Ogaji, revealed that system operators sometimes instruct GenCos to scale down output due to low uptake.
Asked about gas supply to thermal plants, she said, “DisCos are not taking load; hence, there is high frequency.” She added that beyond gas shortages, load rejection by DisCos is a major factor behind the ongoing outages.
Providing data, Ogaji explained that in January, average generation stood at 4,541MW, with 2,985MW not utilised. In February, 4,218MW was generated, but 3,274MW went unpicked. She noted that although Nigeria has about 30 grid-connected power plants with a combined capacity of 15,500MW, only about 7,000MW can be made available, and just 4,000MW to 4,500MW is typically distributed.
She stated, “We have 30 power plants that are grid-connected. The 30 are on the grid. All of them put together have an installed capacity of 15,500MW. Out of the 15,500MW, because of the huge debt owed to the GenCos, the GenCos can only make 7,000MW available. Out of the 7,000MW they are making available, the DisCos and transmission can take just between 4,000MW and 4,500MW since 2013 till now.”
However, operators within the distribution segment have rejected these claims, insisting that the issue is not load rejection but inefficiencies in transmission. According to them, power is often sent to locations where it cannot be effectively distributed or monetised.
Explaining this, one operator said, “Between the GenCos and the DisCos, is there no transmission? And if you are the DisCo and I’m the transmission, don’t you have the right to tell me where you want your load to be taken to? If I dump it where you don’t want it, will you accept it?”
Another official argued that it makes no business sense to reject electricity, stating, “But if a transporter dumps my load midway and I don’t have the capacity to wheel it myself, you don’t expect me to pay for that. We cannot be saying the same thing, repeating the same argument of 12 years ago now. This is 2026. We should be talking about progress.
“Remember that DisCos are business people. We also want to sell our products. We want to make money. How can I reject loads that will give me money? There is a difference between load rejection and load dumping. She is talking about load dumping, but making it look like load rejection. They are two different things.
“Load dumping is when you go and dump the load where the DisCos do not want it and where they cannot even collect it. They should take it to where we can make use of it. The end users are waiting. My customers want light. My job is to provide them with electricity. So load dumping is not a good thing. We do not engage in load rejection, at least not now. Not when we need electricity, but we will reject the one that is dumped, not the one that is brought to us when we agree that this is where we want it,” the operator stated.
The Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, Sunday Oduntan, also avoided placing blame, emphasising collaboration and solutions.
“DisCos are not going to join issues with any of the stakeholders within the value chain. ANED is interested in solutions, and we are proffering solutions. And that is why we feel that we should join hands with the government to find solutions. When there are no more bottlenecks, there will not be any load rejection or load dumping.
“Bottlenecks lead to load dumping. Load dumping becomes load rejection by way of allegation. But in reality, it is load dumping. You don’t dump load where people don’t need it,” Oduntan said.
Meanwhile, the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) attributed the situation to multiple factors, including generation levels and DisCos’ daily requests for electricity.
According to TCN, power allocation is guided by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s Multi-Year Tariff Order and depends largely on demand projections submitted by DisCos.
“The DisCos nominate the quantum of power they would want a day ahead. This also helps in determining the quantum of electricity delivered to them. When TCN supplies the bulk electricity to the DisCos, the DisCos, in turn, serve the electricity customers within their franchise areas,” TCN said.
It added that “electricity apportionment within DisCos’ franchise areas depends on the discretion of each DisCo”.
The ongoing dispute highlights deep-rooted inefficiencies in Nigeria’s power sector, as millions of consumers continue to grapple with unreliable electricity supply.
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