The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has rejected the Enugu Electricity Regulatory Commission over the latter’s controversial Multi-Year Tariff Order, which slashed the tariff of Band A to N160.4 per kilowatt-hour from N209, effective from August 1, 2025.
This comes as the federal government electricity regulator said it is engaging EERC over the electricity tariff slash controversy.
NERC disclosed this in a notice on Thursday.
NERC’s intervention comes amid the confusion in the country’s electricity industry after EERC announced a tariff drop mandating MainPower, Enugu Distribution Company, to comply.
However, EERC’s action had attracted condemnation by DisCos and electricity generation companies.
On Thursday, the Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Nigerian Electricity Distributors, Sunday Oduntan, had warned Enugu Band A customers not to be deceived by EERC.
According to him, paying N160.4 per kilowatt-hour instead of N209 per kilowatt-hour will get them an epileptic power supply.
Also, the Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, through his spokesman, Bolaji Tunji, urged that the federal government not recommend state electricity subsidy removal.
Reacting to the controversy, NERC, which handed EERC regulatory power in line with the 2023 Electricity Act, said state governments do not have jurisdiction over the national grid or over electric power stations established under federal laws or operating under licences it issued.
NERC advised state governments to reflect the wholesale costs in tariffs or be ready to pay subsidies for any tariff shortfall.
“As states do not have jurisdiction over the national grid and over electric power stations established under federal laws/operating under licences issued by the Commission, they must holistically incorporate the wholesale costs of grid supply to their states without any qualification or deviation in their design of tariffs for end-use customers in order not to distort the dynamics of the market, or be prepared to make a policy intervention by way of a subsidy for any deviation in the tariff structure that distorts the wholesale generation, transmission, and legacy financing costs in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry.
“It informed all stakeholders that the Commission is currently engaging EERC on their tariff order,” NERC’s notice reads in part.
