The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET) says it plans to deploy an automated energy trading platform/exchange to promote bilateral trading between Independent Power Plants (IPPS) and commercial/industrial customers in 2023. The Managing Director of NBET, Mr Nnaemeka Ewelukwa, disclosed this in a document titled, ‘Actualising Enhanced Electricity Supply and Commercial/Industrial Decarbonisation in Nigeria,’ made available to newsmen in Abuja. Ewelukwa said that the platform would have multiple energy brokers playing key roles in linking energy suppliers and customers registered.
According to him, the IPPS wishing to sell power can register on the platform and immediately have access to a comprehensive database of commercial/industrial customers across the country, and their energy requirements. He listed those that would be involved in the platform to include: Commercial and industrial customers and industrial clusters; generation plants; transmission and distribution network. Others are: Gas pipeline network; energy locations, including solar irradiation, wind and mini-hydro potentials.“The platform will efficiently link sufficient numbers of buyers and sellers thus facilitating price discovery. With price discovery, energy buyers and sellers have the assurance that they are purchasing these commodities at fair prices in a reliable marketplace. It will also ultimately enhance overall visibility of tariffs, capacity availability, costs and prices along the energy value chain, which will aid buyers and sellers in undertaking transactions,” he said.
Ewelukwa said that the platform would facilitate private investments in the transmission/distribution network in order to fully bridge the infrastructure gap between electricity demand and supply. According to him, it will also reduce the technical, commercial and collection losses in the system. He said that the platform would also promote business partnerships involving customers, IPPs, Transmission Company of Nigeria and the Distribution Companies. Ewelukwa also said that a comprehensive interactive map would be developed by NBET, which will show the geo-locations of the facilities within Nigeria and the ECOWAS sub region. He said that the interactive map would facilitate transaction structuring by willing buyers and sellers, network investment coordination. It would also guide investment decision-making, and facilitate greater policy planning and efficient resource planning.
Ewelukwa said that the Securities and Exchange Commission, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), as well as the Nigerian Midstream and Downstream Petroleum Regulatory Authority were being engaged by NBET. “The Federal Ministries of Power; Finance, Budget and National Planning; Industry, Trade and Investment; as well as the media and Civil Societies Organisations (CSOs) were being engaged NBET was interfacing the Manufacturers Association of Nigeria (MAN), Nigeria Employers Consultative Association Chambers of Commerce, Industry, Mines, and Agriculture, Nigeria Association of Small Scale Industrialists; and Nigeria Association of Small and Medium Enterprises,” he said.. The managing director said that the administration of Power Purchase Agreement (PPAs) and vesting contracts by the agency had resulted in electricity payments worth N5 trillion from February 2015 to date. According to him, the Azura Power Plant in Edo, the first financed power project in Nigeria, heralded an investment of close to 1 billion dollars.
Ewelukwa also said that NBET had executed PPAs with 14 solar Independent Power Projects (IPPs) for one gigawatt (1GW) of electricity. He said that acting as the anchor for the Federal Government of Nigeria-World Bank Power Sector Recovery Programme (PSRP), NBET made the World Bank make available $750 million for the Power Sector Recovery Operations (PSRO) loan. He said that the agency was instrumental to FGN’s budgetary appropriation in addressing tariff shortfalls in the electricity market. Ewelukwa listed other milestones achieved by NBET to include the facilitation of privatisation of generation companies (GenCos) through PPAs with core investors. “Others are the 2.5 billion dollar privatisation of GenCos and DisCos (2013). Facilitation of Afam Power Plc and Afam the three Fast Power limited (N105.3 billion; 343.6 million billion. The successful and transparent management of the N1.3 trillion payment assurance facility that aided a 30 per cent increase in the highest peak generation ever attained. “From 4500MW (February 2015) to 5,800MW (March 2021), due to capacity recovery by generation companies,” he said. (NAN)
