The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, (NERC), has issued permits to Golden Penny Power Limited, MTN Communications Nigeria Ltd and others for mini-grid electricity generation.
The NERC said it issued nine new off-grid generation licences in the first quarter of 2024 with a gross capacity of 109.69 megawatts and three new trading licences.
According to a report by the Commission, Golden Penny Power Ltd got a licence to build six off-grid gas plants in Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, and Cross River States. The total capacity is 100MWs.
Also, MTN Nigeria was granted a permit to build four captive generation plants across Lagos State with 15.94MW capacity.
Aside from MTN, SweetCo Foods Ltd, African Steel Mills Nigeria Limited, West African Ceramics Ltd, Royal Engineered Stones Ltd, and Armilo Plastics Ltd were permitted to generate captive power.
The Commission disclosed that it issues registration certificates to a mini-grid developer for one or more systems with distribution capacity below 100kW.
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. They 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 9 captive power-generation permits in 2024/Q1 with a total nameplate capacity of 52.57MW. It was gathered that other licensed companies for mini-grids are Daybreak Power Solutions, TIS Renewable Energy Limited, Auro Nigeria Private Limited, Watts Exchange Limited, Centum Dopemu Energy Services Ltd, DMD Electric Limited Lagos State.
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.
