FG, GenCos may land in UK court over N13.2b electricity bill

Investor owing N15b in clawback, NBET insists
The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc (NBET) and the promoter of Omotosho and Olorunsogo power generation companies (GenCos), Sepco Pacific Energy Partners Limited, are at loggerheads over electricity invoices hovering around N13.2 billion.

The two utilities, which power the entire South West region, have, therefore, threatened to initiate action against the Federal Government at the London Court of International Arbitration over the matter.

Denying any wrongdoing however, the manager of the Nigerian Electricity Supply industry (NESI) claimed that the investor owed N15 billion in clawback, insisting that it could be out to “blackmail the Federal Government.”

This is coming few weeks after all of the nation’s 10 distribution companies (DisCos) sued the government for alleged interference in their operations.

Alleging that the NBET shunned the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) for the Final Settlement Statement (FSS) issued by the Market Operator, the investor, in a document obtained by The Guardian, held that the government agency, under the PPA, reportedly deducted N5.2 billion from the GenCos’ accounts, while withholding about N8 billion from the company.

The N5 billion was allegedly a wrong calculation arising from discrepancies in exchange rate for the electricity supplied for 13 months, while the N8 billion was said to be erroneously deducted.

But a 10-page document, dated June 8 2020 and signed by the Managing Director of NBET, Marilyn Amobi, insisted that the agency did no wrong in the invoices and deductions.

NBET maintained that by using the capacity values in the FSS and instead of the PPA, the agency complied with the contractual obligations in the purchase pact as well as the rules guiding relationships among the multiple agents in the market.

On the allegation of non-refund of over N5 billion invoices, the NBET noted that while it based its calculation on an exchange rate of N169 to a dollar, the approved rate as provided under the Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) as at 2013 was N157 to the American currency.

“As you know, since 2017, NBET has made unsuccessful attempts to meet with you and your representatives to resolve the Base Exchange Rate that should be applied to your plants, and to agree on clawback that NBET needs to charge against your plants,” the document pointed out.