The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is set to generate a minimum of 2,000MW of electricity from renewables this year.
In a report on its website, the agency assured of guaranteed price and access to grid as well as feed-in tariff for solar, wind, biomass and small hydro.
Apart from the Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) based on plant life cycle of 20 years, electricity distribution companies (DisCos) are mandated to procure minimum of 1000MW, representing 50 per cent of the projected renewable sourced electricity.
NERC has also approved, in line with the National Policy on Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency, three windows for grid connected renewable energy projects, such as net-metering for very small capacity (typically below 1MW), feed-in tariff for capacities up to 5MW of solar, 10MW of wind, 10MW of biomass and 30MW of small hydro.
Also, approved is competitive tender for capacities above these thresholds to be procured through Nigerian Bulk Electricity Traders (NBET).
“Pursuant to its regulatory mandates, NERC established in 2015, a feed-in tariff for renewable energy based power generation in Nigeria.
Nigeria has an abundance of various renewable energy resources of which solar, wind, biomass and small hydro power (SHP) are the most ubiquitous.
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is committed to stimulating investment in renewable energy generation in Nigeria” the report said.
The Executive Secretary, Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria (REAN), Lande Abudu, agreed that many Nigerians were deploying renewable energy now than before because it is clean.
“There is already more demand for renewable energy. In any case, in the metering and other issues we all have to work together because the mini-grid still has to be paid for, one way or another. If it is stand-alone system that is another thing.
Then that means the market becomes huger for them. Stand-alone system is small. You can’t have 10-work system in the centre of Abuja,” she said.
