DisCos earn N603bn as power offtake drops

Electricity distribution companies collected N603.64bn from customers in the second quarter of 2026, despite a decline in the volume of electricity they received from the power market.

The figure was contained in the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s second-quarter 2026 report, which showed that the average energy offtake by the DisCos at their trading points fell to 3,197.03 megawatt-hours per hour in the quarter.

The Q2 figure represented a 112.45MWh/h, or 3.40 per cent, decline from the 3,309.48MWh/h average recorded in the first quarter. Despite the decline in offtake, the DisCos recorded an overall offtake performance of 94.07 per cent during the quarter, against available partially contracted capacity of 3,398.41MWh/h.

According to the report, the DisCos received a total of 6,982.32 gigawatt-hours of electricity during the quarter but billed customers for only 5,812.31GWh. It stated, “This translates to an overall energy accounting efficiency of 83.24 per cent and represents a 0.24pp decrease compared to 2026/Q1 (83.48 per cent).”

The report further revealed that the naira value of electricity off-taken by the DisCos stood at N946.57bn, while the total value of energy billed to customers was N744.67bn.

This translated to a billing efficiency of 78.67 per cent, representing a decline of 0.57 percentage points from the 79.24 per cent recorded in the first quarter. At the collection stage, the DisCos recovered N603.64bn from the N744.67bn billed to customers, translating to a collection efficiency of 81.06 per cent.

The report said this represented an improvement of 2.11 percentage points from the 78.95 per cent recorded in Q1. However, the difference between the amount billed and the amount collected stood at N141.03bn during the quarter.

The report also disclosed that the weighted average Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses across the 11 DisCos stood at 36.23 per cent in Q2.

It stated, “The ATC&C loss of 36.23 per cent is 19.31pp higher than the 2026 MYTO target (16.92 per cent) and translates to a cumulative revenue loss of N129.07 billion across all DisCos.”

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The 36.23 per cent loss, however, represented a 1.21 percentage-point improvement from the 37.44 per cent recorded in Q1.

The report noted that all the DisCos failed to meet their ATC&C targets during the quarter, with “Kaduna DisCo recording the worst underperformance relative to the target (Actual – 67.70 per cent vs target – 18.18 per cent),” it stated.

On market obligations, the report said the cumulative upstream invoice payable by the DisCos stood at N410.38bn in Q2.

The amount comprised N326.46bn for generation costs from the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company and N83.92bn for transmission and administrative services provided by the market operator.

The DisCos collectively remitted N385.44bn, comprising N306.62bn to NBET and N78.82bn to the market operator, leaving an outstanding balance of N24.94bn. This represented a market remittance performance of 93.92 per cent, slightly lower than the 94.08 per cent recorded in Q1.

The report added that the Federal Government had taken responsibility for about 50 per cent, or N321.26bn, of the total generation costs through subsidies arising from the freezing of end-use customer tariffs at the rates applicable in July 2024.

Meanwhile, three international bilateral customers purchasing electricity from grid-connected generating companies paid $8.67m against an $18.84m invoice issued by the market operator during the quarter.

This represented a remittance rate of 46.02 per cent. Domestic bilateral customers, on the other hand, paid N6.91bn against an invoice of N7.55bn, representing a remittance rate of 91.54 per cent.