|
NERC Administrator harps on Standards |
|
|
|
|
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has assured stakeholders that it will ensure operators’ compliance with regulatory standards, legislation and related initiatives.
The Administrator of NERC, Mallam Imamuddeen Talba said this in his presentation at the 2009 International Conference and Exhibition on Power and Telecommunication (ICEPT), organized by the International Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (NIEEE), a division of the Nigerian Society of Engineers (NSE).
Talba in his paper titled “Standardization and Regulatory Environment: The NERC Experience” said that one of the cardinal functions of the NERC as stipulated in the Electric Power Sector Reform (EPSR) Act 2005 is to guard against factors that affects health and safety of consumers as well as environmental protection.
He explained some of the primary aims and benefits of standard enforcement to include; compatibility, technology transfer, removal of trade barriers as a basis for technical and quality regulation.
“The benefits are enormous, such as assurance of quality of goods purchased and services received, elimination or reduction of wasteful material or labour, provision of workable basis for acceptance or rejection of goods/services or consequential disputes, if any, as well as provide a base for research and development among others”.
According to him, the EPSR Act 2005 states that “no company shall construct, own or operate and maintain a generation, transmission or distribution company except it has been licensed by the Commission”.
Reiterating NERC’s effort in standardization in the power sector, he disclosed some milestones of the Commission as thus; the introduction of the Health and Safety Manual for the electricity industry, launched on May 28, 2009 and the subsequent training of stakeholders for the enforcement and compliance in their respective companies.
Others according to him include the introduction and enforcement of the Multi- Year Tariff Order, which provides a 15 year tariff path for the industry with yearly minor adjustments and major reviews every 5 years and the Grid Code designed to facilitate competition in the production and supply of electricity in Nigeria for all users of the transmission system.
The Administrator added that recent effort in standardization by NERC was the inauguration of a Metering Committee to enforce the metering code designed to establish the technical and operation procedure for commercial metering system and its compliance.
|
Media and Publicity 
