TCN urges electricity stakeholders to comply with rules of engagement
NAN-HE-17
Market
By Kingsley Okoye
Abuja, Oct. 27, 2016 (NAN) The Transmission Company Of Nigeria (TCN) and Independent System Operator (ISO) say stakeholders in the electricity sector should comply with market rules by embracing discipline in conduct of their businesses.
The Managing Director of the TCN, Mr Abubakar Atiku, made the call at a workshop for stakeholders in the nation’s electricity industry in Abuja on Thursday.
The objectives of the workshop are to sensitise participants to the development in the electricity market, educate them on the implementation of market rules and orders of the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC).
The workshop, with the theme “ Billing and Settlement Challenges in Transitional Electricity Market”, is designed to discuss current level of compliance by stakeholders to market rules and engagement in the industry.
TCN’s managing director, represented by Mr Tom Uwah, Managing Director, Transmission Service Provider (TSP), said stakeholders in the nation’s electricity value chain had defaulted in one way or the other with the compliance requirements.
Atiku said that the most critical impact of non-compliance was that of financial liquidity as it affected service providers who were not covered by the payment guarantee in the market.
He said that payment to TSP had been slow, adding that the slow pace was constituting a challenge to the maintenance, reinforcement and expansion of the grid.
“You may also wish to know that there is an inbuilt penalty for excess transmission loss which affects TSP revenue; we can only improve all these if the cash flow is improved.’’
Atiku said it was important that operators in the electricity market should abide by the rules and meet with the market obligations to maintain a viable value chain.
The Managing Director of ISO, a business unit of TCN, Mr Musa Gumel, said there was the urgent need for stakeholders to respect the rules.
According to him, the rules include the Electricity Reform Act 2005, the Grid Code, the Market Rule, Meter Code and others designed to ensure the success of the sector.
He said the ruling documents should be the basis for operational relationships for stakeholders, noting that the abuse of the rules would lead to under performance of the sector.
He appealed to stakeholders to resort to the rules to resolve all disputes instead of engaging in self help and litigations. (NAN)
KC/GOM/IA
Edited by Gregory Mmaduakolam/Idris Abdulrahman