The Minister of Power, Adebayo Adelabu, has faulted the country’s current pricing of gas utilised by Generation Companies in US dollars.
Adelabu disclosed this in his speech on Tuesday at the ongoing three-day ministerial retreat in Abuja.
According to him, the pricing of gas utilized by GenCos in Dollars affects the pricing of electricity to end-users due to foreign exchange volatility.
He noted that a preferred option of gas pricing in the country is to ensure that the gas utilized by GenCos is traded in Naira to better apply the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) methodology.
“A major issue in the sector is the pricing of gas utilized by GenCos in US Dollars, a hugely volatile variable that significantly affects the pricing of electricity to end-users. A preferable option is to ensure that the gas utilized by GenCos is traded in Naira to better manage foreign currency-related inflationary trends that challenge the faithful application of the Multi-Year Tariff Order (MYTO) methodology”, he said.
The development comes barely a week after GenCos warned that they may not be able to sustain current electricity supply levels following the payment of only 28.3 percent of an invoice for power supplied to the national grid by the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc in the September payment cycle.
