As the crisis between states and electricity distribution companies continues to degenerate over who has the power to fix electricity tariffs, the Federal Government, through the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, has summoned all the stakeholders to a meeting scheduled for next week.
Energy commissioners of state governments, under their umbrella body known as the Forum of Commissioners for Power and Energy in Nigeria, have repeatedly insisted that the Electricity Act, 2023 (Amended), has empowered state governments to regulate their respective power markets.
But power distribution companies, under the aegis of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, insisted that, although the Act enabled the states to regulate their power markets, the state governments lack the power to put a price on cross-border electricity.
As a result of this, neither the states nor the Discos are ready to shift ground over who has the authority to regulate electricity tariffs. As state regulators make moves to design tariffs for the electricity markets in their domains, starting with Enugu State, but the power distribution companies declared that this cannot work.
