National Bureau of Statistics (NBS) has revealed that an average of 5.6 million Nigerians paid for the electricity they consumed in 2017.
The NBS stated this in its third-quarter report on power sector titled ‘Energy Generated and Sent Out and Consumed and Load Allocation’ posted on its website, at the weekend.
The report notes that out of the 82,266 megawatts (mw) of electricity generated daily by the power stations in the period, residential population paid a total of N979 million for kilowatt-hours (KWT) of electricity.
Similarly, 783 business centres, office buildings, plazas were billed 314 million/KWT while 28,000 industrial population for places where there is heavy machinery usage or where some manufacturing process is taking place were billed 155 million/KWT.
Others are special population for hospitals and airports with dedicated power supply were billed 79.7 million for KWT and street lighting consumed 5.2 million KWT.
Out of the 11 electricity distribution companies (Discos), the report stated that Ikeja 15 percent allocation was the highest followed by Ibadan 13 percent and Abuja 11.50 percent.
Benin and Enugu 9 percent, while Kaduna and Kano 8 percent, Port Harcourt got 6 percent, Jos and Yola got the lowest allocation of 5.50 percent and 3.50 percent, respectively.
Allocation of electricity to Discos has always been a source of controversy with some of them reportedly rejecting loaded allocations.
Meanwhile, the daily energy generation attained a peak of 3,880mw on September 1, 2017 and daily energy sent out same date was 3,825mw.
The report also stated that the highest daily energy generated per hour attained a peak of 93,118 mw on September 1, and daily energy sent out per hour on the same date was 91,801mw. This, the report stated, represented the highest level of energy generated and sent out in the month of September 2017 and in the third quarter.
However, it noted that the lowest daily energy generation, 2,354mw, in Q3 2017 was attained on September 14, and daily energy sent out on that date was 2,310mw.
According to the report, the lowest daily energy generation per hour was also attained on the same date; 56,486mw was generated and 55,444mw was sent out.
