Electricity distribution companies recovered N603.64 billion from customers in the second quarter of 2026 even as the volume of power they took from the grid declined, according to the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission’s latest quarterly report.
Average energy offtake by the DisCos fell to 3,197.03 megawatt-hours per hour during the period. That was 112.45 MWh/h, or 3.40 per cent, lower than the 3,309.48 MWh/h recorded in the first quarter. Despite the drop, the companies achieved an overall offtake performance of 94.07 per cent against available partially contracted capacity of 3,398.41 MWh/h.
Energy Received, Billed and Collected
The 11 distribution companies received a total of 6,982.32 gigawatt-hours of electricity in the quarter but billed customers for only 5,812.31 GWh. This produced an energy accounting efficiency of 83.24 per cent—0.24 percentage points below the 83.48 per cent recorded in the first quarter.
The naira value of the electricity offtaken stood at N946.57 billion, while the amount billed to customers was N744.67 billion. Billing efficiency therefore came in at 78.67 per cent, a decline of 0.57 percentage points from the previous quarter’s 79.24 per cent.
At the collection stage the DisCos recovered N603.64 billion of the N744.67 billion billed, translating to a collection efficiency of 81.06 per cent. That marked an improvement of 2.11 percentage points from the 78.95 per cent achieved in the first quarter. The gap between the amount billed and the amount collected remained substantial at N141.03 billion.
High Technical and Commercial Losses Persist
Weighted average Aggregate Technical, Commercial and Collection losses across the DisCos stood at 36.23 per cent in the second quarter. Although this represented a 1.21-percentage-point improvement from the 37.44 per cent recorded in the first quarter, it was still 19.31 percentage points above the 2026 Multi-Year Tariff Order target of 16.92 per cent. The excess losses translated into a cumulative revenue shortfall of N129.07 billion for the sector.
Every DisCo failed to meet its ATC&C target. Kaduna DisCo recorded the largest underperformance, posting actual losses of 67.70 per cent against a target of 18.18 per cent.
Upstream Market Obligations
The cumulative upstream invoice payable by the DisCos in the second quarter totalled N410.38 billion. Of this amount, N326.46 billion covered generation costs owed to the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company, while N83.92 billion related to transmission and administrative services provided by the market operator.
The figures underline the continuing challenge of converting available power into billed and collected revenue even as collection efficiency showed modest improvement during the quarter.
