Twenty-four bulk electricity consumers have been licensed to disconnect from the Nigerian national grid by generating their own electricity in 2024, as 22 others obtained licences for off-grid generation. In total, the 46 entities would generate up to 289 megawatts of electricity.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC) said in its report that various companies and institutions got NERC’s approval to generate captive power last year.
According to the report, the commission issues captive power generation permits to entities that aim to own and maintain power plants for generating power for their use and not for sale to a third party.
The report added that a total of 138 megawatts of electricity would be generated by the 22 bulk electricity consumers.
It gave some of the companies that exited the grid as SweetCo Foods Limited with 1.50MW; African Steel Mills with 20MW; Armilo Plastics, 1.13MW; Royal Engineered Stones, 4MW; West African Ceramics Limited, 10MW; Ro-Marong Nigeria Ltd, 4.40MW, and Psaltry International Company Limited, 1.10MW, MTN Nigeria Communication Limited got approvals for 15.94MW in total; University of Abuja got 3MW; University of Calabar & Teaching Hospital was secured 7MW; and University of Agriculture Michael Okpara, Umudike, 3MW;
However, the NERC has blamed the shift from the national grid on power fluctuations and low supply.and that grid frequency is a crucial power quality parameter that industrial customers are particularly concerned about due to the sensitivity of their heavy-duty machinery.
It stated that “in industrial production assembly lines, the machines are designed to operate only within pre-set frequency tolerance limits and therefore often have a low tolerance for frequency fluctuations.
GIK/APA