MTN and others receive authorisation to produce power.

Permits for mini-grid electricity generation have been granted by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission to Golden Penny Power Limited, MTN Communications Nigeria Limited, Havenhill Synergy, and other entities.

According to the NERC, it granted three new trade licenses and nine new off-grid generation licenses with a combined gross capacity of 109.69 megawatts in the first quarter of 2024.

As per the commission's report, Golden Penny Power Limited was granted permission to construct six off-grid gas plants in the states of Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, and Cross River. 100 MW is the total capacity.

A permission to erect four 15.94MW captive power plants in Lagos State was also given to MTN.
Other companies that were allowed to produce captive electricity were MTN, SweetCo Foods Limited, African Steel Mills Nigeria Limited, West African Ceramics Limited, Royal Engineered Stones Limited, and Armilo Plastics Limited.

Permits for the construction and upkeep of captive power plants are granted to organisations whose goal is to produce electricity for internal use only—that is, not for the purpose of selling it to another party. With a total nameplate capacity of 52.57MW, the commission issued nine permits for the generation of captive electricity in 2024/Q1.

Daybreak Power Solutions, TIS Renewable Energy Limited, Auro Nigeria Private Limited, Watts Exchange Limited, Centum Dopemu Energy Services Ltd, and DMD Electric Limited Lagos State are among the other licensed mini-grid firms, according to information our correspondent obtained.

The Electricity Act of 2023, Section 165(1)(m), gives the commission the authority to grant renewable energy companies licenses for mini-grid concessions that will only serve a particular geographic area. These concessions will indicate the aggregate electricity that will be generated and distributed from a site, with the obligation to serve customers who request service.

The commission stated that by providing licenses and registration certificates for the establishment of mini-grids, it has continued to promote the advancement and use of renewable energy.

A permit is granted to a mini-grid developer for the building, management and, where necessary, ownership of mini-grids with a generation capacity of up to 1MW and a distribution capacity exceeding 100 kW.
The commission revealed that it grants a mini-grid developer registration certificates for one or more systems with a distribution capacity of less than 100kW.

According to the NERC, "the commission issued three mini-grid permits and two registration certificates in 2024/Q1 following the satisfactory evaluation of mini-grid applications."

Four meter installers and two meter manufacturers were among the six Meter Service Providers that NERC claimed to have certified during the period under review.

A Meter Service Provider is an organisation that has been approved by the commission to operate as an installation, vendor, supplier, or manufacturer of metering systems and/or electric energy meters.

An organisation that has been authorised by the commission to offer metering services and may perform tasks including meter finance, procurement, supply, installation, maintenance, and replacement is known as a Meter Asset Provider.

The authorised meter service providers are Genobet Limited (installer), Mojec Meter Asset Management (installer), Epagad International Services Limited (installer), Abdulrahman Ahmadu Zubairu (installer), Smart Meters Company Limited (manufacturer), and Crestflow Energy Limited (manufacturer).
In 2024/Q1, the commission reported that it issued 36 new orders in addition to one regulation. The Eligible Customer Regulations, 2024 (NERC–R–001–2024), the Multi-Year Tariff Order, 2024 (NERC/2023/023—NERC/2023/033) for the Distribution Companies, and the MYTO 2024 for the Transmission Company of Nigeria Plc are among them.

These include NERC/2023/035 - Order on Performance Improvement Plan of the Transmission Company of Nigeria; NERC/2024/001 - Order on the Regulatory Intervention in Kaduna Electricity Distribution Plc; NERC/2024/004 - NERC/2024/014 - Order on Noncompliance with Capping of Estimated Bill by DisCos for the period January - September 2023; and NERC/2024/016 - NERC/2024/036 — February 2024 Supplementary Order to the Multi-Year Tariff Order for the Discos

The commission issued 36 directives to direct licensees' operations during the quarter.