Nigeria’s Electricity Sector Records Improved Generation but Declining Commercial Efficiency in Q1 2025 — NERC
Nigeria’s power sector recorded a boost in electricity generation in the first quarter of 2025, but key commercial performance indicators such as billing, collection, and overall efficiency worsened, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has revealed in its latest quarterly report.
According to the report, the national grid averaged an hourly generation of 4,770.59 megawatt-hours per hour (MWh/h) in Q1 2025, marking a 13.39 percent increase from 4,207.41MWh/h recorded in Q4 2024. The total electricity generated for the quarter stood at 10,304.47 gigawatt-hours (GWh), up from 9,289.95GWh in the previous quarter.
NERC attributed the improved generation to increased availability of generation capacity and a rise in energy offtake by grid-connected customers, including electricity distribution companies (DisCos).
However, despite the improved generation, grid operations continued to face challenges. The report noted that average daily system frequencies (49.28Hz – 50.77Hz) and voltages (296.56kV – 346.82kV) remained outside the normal operating limits prescribed by the grid code. NERC warned that prolonged operations outside these limits could pose a risk to system stability, though it confirmed there were no recorded grid disturbances during the period.
On the commercial side, performance metrics declined across board. DisCos averaged 3,781.94MWh/h in energy offtake, representing a 12.53 percent increase compared to Q4 2024. However, billing and collection efficiencies deteriorated.
Although DisCos received 8,169.00GWh of energy in Q1, only 6,631.92GWh was billed to end-use customers, resulting in a billing efficiency of 81.18 percent — a drop of 2.48 percentage points from the previous quarter.
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Collection efficiency also fell to 74.39 percent, as DisCos were only able to collect ₦553.63 billion out of ₦744.27 billion billed to customers, down from 77.44 percent in Q4 2024.
The report further revealed that the Aggregate Technical, Commercial, and Collection (ATC&C) loss rose sharply to 39.61 percent — significantly higher than the 2025 Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) target of 20.54 percent. This resulted in an estimated revenue shortfall of ₦200.5 billion for the sector. Kaduna DisCo was singled out for the worst performance, with an actual ATC&C loss of 68.57 percent against a target of 21.32 percent .
On market remittances, DisCos were invoiced ₦432.13 billion for energy and market services and remitted ₦414.26 billion, translating to a remittance performance of 95.86 percent — an improvement from the 92.68 percent recorded in the previous quarter.
