CrossBoundary Attends the Nigeria Energy Leadership Summit

There, we met both on and off-grid actors across Nigeria’s energy sector. Key attendees included Electricity Distribution Companies or “DisCos”, such as Ikeja, Eko, Abuja, regulators (including the Federal Ministry of Power, the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, and the Renewable Energy Association of Nigeria), and a multitude of developers.

Many of the conversations at the conference centered around the Electricity Act, a policy which – amongst other things – promotes the decentralization of Nigeria’s generation, transmission, and distribution of electricity. Additionally, with the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading (NBET)’s imminent phasing out from the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI), the sector is set to become more competitive with more direct relationships between power generation companies (GenCos) and DisCos.

These changes are symbolic of Nigeria’s commitment to creating an enabling environment for the alleviation of energy poverty through capacity and reliability. Coupled with Nigeria’s energy transition goals, this will undoubtedly proliferate renewable energy deployment across the country. The increased privatization of the market may also help to attract capital for GenCos, DisCos, and Independent Power Producers (IPPs) which have shown a strong track record.

Embedded generation from IPPs provides an opportunity for energy decentralization. In embedded generation, IPPs develop energy plants tailored to meet the needs of a particular on-grid area that a DisCo is responsible for. The two parties work together to create a solution that best serves the needs of the coverage area including capacity, availability hours, and affordability. DisCos procuring energy from IPPs will help to:

• Bridge energy deficits
• Increase energy reliability
• Co-create solutions that meet sustainability and renewable energy goals

With extensive experience supporting Nigeria’s off-grid sector across the value chain, we look forward to increasing our engagement with Nigeria’s on-grid sector. Our team is committed to working closely with DisCos, GenCos, and IPPs during this exciting drive towards decentralized and sustainable energy solutions!