{"id":2817,"date":"2022-08-02T15:37:00","date_gmt":"2022-08-02T15:37:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/?p=2817"},"modified":"2022-08-03T09:22:16","modified_gmt":"2022-08-03T09:22:16","slug":"senates-electricity-bill-2022-ambitiously-aims-to-transform-nigerias-power-sector","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/senates-electricity-bill-2022-ambitiously-aims-to-transform-nigerias-power-sector\/","title":{"rendered":"Senate\u2019s Electricity Bill 2022 Ambitiously Aims to Transform Nigeria\u2019s Power Sector"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The Senate on Wednesday, 20th<\/sup> July 2022 passed the Electricity Bill, 2022 which seeks to repeal the Electricity and Power Sector Reform Act, 2005 and enact the Electricity Act. It consolidates all legislations dealing with the electricity supply industry to provide an omnibus and ideal Institutional framework to guide the post-privatization phase of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry and encourage private sector investments in the sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The primary\naim of the bill, as stated in its very first section, is to create a\ncomprehensive legal and institutional framework to guide the Nigerian\nElectricity Supply Industry (NESI). It de-monopolises the generation,\ntransmission and distribution of electricity at the National level, to empower\nStates, companies and individuals to generate, transmit and distribute\nelectricity. States would also be able to issue licenses to private investors\nwho have the ability to operate mini-grids and power plants within the State,\nbut such State licenses are not to extend to inter-state or transnational\ndistribution of electricity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should\nbe noted that electricity has never been an Exclusive Federal matter as it is\nguided by the provisions of the Concurrent Legislative List of the Constitution\n(in Item 14, Part II of the Second Schedule), which sets out the extent of\nFederal and State legislative powers. By this provision, States are empowered\nto make laws with regards to the establishment and management of electric power\nstations in their States as well as the generation, transmission and\ndistribution of electricity to areas \u201cnot covered\u201d by a national grid system\n\u201cwithin\u201d the State. The bill restates this constitutional provision but goes\nfurther to provide for areas of collaboration between State Governments, the\nFederal Government and the private sector. While the bill\u2019s scope extends to\nall parts of the Federation, it recognises the State Assemblies\u2019 power to\nlegislate on electricity and clearly states that such laws made within the\nscope of the Constitution, shall not be invalidated by the bill.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It should\nalso be noted that that the Constitution amendment Bill No. 33 (Devolution of\nPowers, National Grid System), which was passed by the National Assembly in\nMarch 2022 expands the legislative powers of States to make laws on the generation,\ntransmission and distribution of electricity to include areas within the State \u201ccovered\u201d\nby the national grid. This bill is currently before the State Houses of\nAssembly for ratification and will have a further re-enforcing effect if\nadopted.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The Electricity\nBill mandates the Ministry of Power in consultation with relevant Government\nAuthorities and relevant stakeholders to develop an Integrated Electricity\nPolicy and Strategic Implementation Plan. The objective of this policy\nplan is to guide the overall development of the Nigerian power sector and\naddress policy gaps. The Bill also requires the Integrated Plan to incorporate\nspecific policies including waivers and subsidies that will stimulate the\ndevelopment of renewable energy. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The bill\ngives legal backing to renewable energy by providing a framework for its\ndevelopment and utilisation. It is a progressive development to see the scope\nwidened to capture the ability to generate renewable energy and address fast\nrising concerns over global warming. It retains the provision in section 62 (2)\nof the extant Electric Power Sector Reform Act that provides that licences\nwould not be required for persons who want to generate power below one megawatt.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Interestingly,\nclause 68 (9) seems to prohibit receipt of funds by distribution companies from\nelectricity consumers to purchase electricity transformers or related equipment,\nbut then it goes on in 68 (10) to say that such consumers seeking stable power\nsupply may elect to fund such acquisition and installation where there is a supply\ndelay and there is a prior written request made by them to the electricity\ncompany with details such as the amount to be contributed, names, address and\noccupation of the consumer, and number of customers who will benefit from the\ntransformer to be purchased.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Commendably,\nthe bill makes an effort to be gender sensitive. In addition, clause 1 (5) (b)\nof the bill requires the Minister for Power to consult with the Ministry of\nWomen Affairs and other relevant agencies to promote gender mainstreaming in\nthe design and implementation of electricity projects and programmes. Clause\n104 (3) (d) requires the Rural Electrification Agency to foster gender\nmainstreaming in rural electrification activities, while Clause 34 (1) (l)\nwhich deals with the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) mandates\nthe Commission to promote gender mainstreaming and local content requirements\nwithin the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry. NERC remains the independent\nand apex regulator of the industry with the bill providing that Ministry of\nPowers\u2019 supervising authority shall not conflict with the provisions of bill or\nthe Constitution. However, the powers of the Commission (NERC) to regulate\nlicensees in the industry is further expanded.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Another\nsubject the bill addresses is electricity theft. It introduces penalties such\nas prison terms and fines for theft of electricity, bypass of metres, theft of\nelectrical lines and materials, disruption of power supply, damage to public\nstreetlights, etc. This is particularly important as the extant Electric Power\nSector Reform Act is not exhaustive on the issue and electricity theft has led\nto significant loss of revenue in the industry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The\nestablishment of the National Power Training Institute of Nigeria and the Power\nTraining Fund (Power Fund) is another innovation of the bill worth mentioning.\nThe National Power Training Institute is to serve as the focal point for human\nresource development, workforce capacity building and a training and research\ncentre with collaborative efforts from local and international institutes of\nprofessional in the power sector. The power fund on the other hand is to be\nutilized for the promotion of skill acquisition and development of human\ncapacity in the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) with the view to\ngenerate a pool of indigenously trained manpower to cater to the needs of the\npower sector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Overall, the bill has been hailed by stakeholders as a potentially beneficial legislation. In many countries, communities generate their own electricity; therefore, giving the States the reins on energy generation and transmission would go a long way in improving the power sector as less pressure would be put on the National Grid especially with the licensing of mini-grids within the States. The introduction of renewable energy in our energy mix would be quite an innovation as it has the potential to attract investors to the power supply sector and hopefully put an end to the incessant challenges that occur in the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. The bill will need be sent to the House of Representatives for concurrence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

See the report of the Senate Committee on Power on the Electricity Bill 2022<\/a><\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Senate on Wednesday, 20th July 2022 passed the Electricity Bill, 2022 which seeks to repeal the Electricity and Power Sector Reform Act, 2005 and enact the Electricity Act. It consolidates all legislations dealing with the electricity supply industry to provide an omnibus and ideal Institutional framework to guide the post-privatization phase of the Nigerian […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":2826,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-2817","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2817"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2840,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2817\/revisions\/2840"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2826"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2817"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2817"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/placng.org\/Legist\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2817"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}