The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has issued permits to Golden Penny Power Limited, MTN Communications Nigeria Limited, Havenhill Synergy, and others for mini-grid electricity generation.
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.
Aside from MTN, SweetCo Foods Limited, African Steel Mills Nigeria Limited, West African Ceramics Limited, Royal Engineered Stones Limited, and Armilo Plastics Limited were permitted to generate captive power.
“Captive power generation permits are issued to entities that aim to own and maintain power plants for generating power for consumption and not for sale to a third party.
The commission issued nine captive power generation permits in 2024/Q1 with a total nameplate capacity of 52.57MW.
Section 165(1)(m) of the Electricity Act 2023 permits the commission to award licence of mini-grid concessions to renewable energy companies to exclusively serve a specific geographical location indicating aggregate electricity to be generated and distributed from a site with the obligation to serve customers to request service.
Under this, the commission said it has continued to encourage the development and utilisation of renewable energy by issuing permits and registration certificates for mini-grid development.
A permit is issued to a mini-grid developer for the construction, operation, maintenance, and where applicable ownership of mini-grids with distribution capacity above 100 kilowatts and generation capacity up to 1MW.
The commission revealed that for one or more systems with distribution capacities less than 100kW, it grants registration certificates to a mini-grid provider.
“Three mini-grid permits and two registration certificates were issued by the commission in 2024/Q1 following the satisfactory evaluation of mini-grid applications,” the NERC said.
NERC reported that it has approved six Meter Service Providers during the time under review, comprising two manufacturers and four installers of meters.
A Meter Asset Provider is an entity that is granted a permit by the commission to provide metering services with roles that may include meter financing, procurement, supply, installation, maintenance, and replacement.
The certified 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).
