Q2: ATC&C losses hit 36.23%, as DisCos collect N603.64bn – NERC

By Onu Okorie

Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission NERC has disclosed that the wighted average Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection ATC&C loss in electricity market, stood at 36.23 per cent during the second quarter of 2026.
The commission, also revealed in its second-quarter 2026 report released on Monday, that Nigeria’s 11 electricity distribution companies DisCos collected N603.64 billion out of N744.67 billion billed to customers during the quarter.
The collection represented an 81.06 per cent efficiency rate, an improvement over the 78.95 per cent recorded in the first quarter of the year.
Despite the improvement in revenue collection, NERC said the DisCos continued to record significant losses, with their weighted average ATC&C loss reaching 36.23 per cent.
According to the report, the loss comprised 21.33 per cent in technical and commercial losses and 18.94 per cent in collection losses.
The regulator said the figure exceeded the 2026 Multi-Year Tariff Order MYTO target of 16.92 per cent by 19.31 percentage points, resulting in an estimated revenue loss of N129.073 billion.
The Q2 performance, however, represented a 1.21 percentage-point improvement from the 37.44 per cent ATC&C loss recorded in Q1.
NERC said none of the 11 DisCos met their respective ATC&C loss targets during the quarter.
Kaduna Electricity Distribution Company recorded the widest gap between its actual performance and regulatory target, posting an ATC&C loss of 67.70 per cent against a target of 18.18 per cent.
The commission explained that ATC&C losses measure the combined impact of technical and commercial losses, as well as revenue losses arising from the inability of DisCos to collect payments from customers they have billed.
DisCos’ N24.94bn upstream obligations
The report also showed that the DisCos had upstream market obligations totalling N410.38 billion during the quarter.
Of this amount, N326.46 billion was owed to the Nigeria Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) for DRO-adjusted generation costs, while N83.92 billion was payable to the Market Operator (MO) for transmission and administrative services.
The DisCos remitted N385.44 billion against the obligations, comprising N306.62 billion to NBET and N78.82 billion to the MO.
The payments left an outstanding balance of N24.94 billion and represented a remittance performance of 93.92 per cent, slightly below the 94.08 per cent recorded in Q1.
NERC further reported that three international bilateral customers purchased electricity from grid-connected generation companies but remitted only $8.675 million of the $18.84 million invoiced, representing a 46.02 per cent remittance rate.
For domestic bilateral customers, N6.913 billion was paid out of N7.552 billion invoiced, translating to a remittance performance of 91.54 per cent.
Electricity offtake falls
The commission said average energy offtake by the DisCos at their trading points stood at 3,197.03MWh/h during Q2.
The figure was 112.45MWh/h, or 3.40 per cent, lower than the 3,309.48MWh/h recorded in the first quarter.
NERC said overall offtake performance stood at 94.07 per cent compared with the available Partially Contracted Capacity of 3,398.41MWh/h.
Only 61.51% of customers metered
Meanwhile, NERC said only 61.51 per cent of electricity customers in Nigeria had been metered as of the end of June 2026.
The report showed that 7,743,839 of the 12,589,486 active registered customers in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) were metered, leaving about 4.8 million customers without meters.
“As of the end of June 2026, 7,743,839 out of the total 12,589,486 active registered customers in the NESI were metered, translating to a metering rate of 61.51 per cent,” the report said.
Meter installations also declined during the quarter, with 350,270 meters installed in Q2, representing a 17.97 per cent decrease from the 426,985 installed in Q1.
NERC said 205,486 meters, or 58.67 per cent of the total installations, were installed under the Distribution Sector Recovery Programme (DISREP).
A further 123,833 meters were installed under the Meter Asset Provider (MAP) framework, while 13,028 were installed under the Meter Acquisition Fund (MAF) framework.
The DisCos Financed framework accounted for 7,643 meters, while 280 meters were installed under the Vendor Financed framework.
To protect unmetered customers from excessive billing, NERC said it continued to issue monthly energy caps for all feeders in each DisCo in states that had not transitioned.
The commission explained that the energy cap represents the maximum amount of energy that may be billed to an unmetered customer for a given month. It is based on the gross energy received by the DisCo and the consumption of metered customers on the relevant feeders.
92,407 customer complaints received
The report also revealed that DisCos received 92,407 customer complaints through their Customer Complaint Units during the quarter, an increase of 0.86 per cent from the 91,617 complaints recorded in Q1.
NERC said metering, billing and service interruption remained the most prevalent issues raised by customers.
Across the quarter, the DisCos successfully resolved 117 of the 146 complaints filed at the NERC Customer Complaint Units (NERC-CCU), representing an 80.13 per cent resolution rate.
The regulator said it would continue to monitor the performance of the DisCos against their approved regulatory targets, particularly in the areas of loss reduction, revenue collection, metering and customer service.