The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission has approved the application of Ibom Utility Company to operate as an independent electricity distribution network in the country. The announcement was made today through NERC’s official Twitter handle.

“The Commission has approved the application from Ibom Utility Company to operate an independent electricity distribution network licence which will enable Ibom Utility Company to distribute electricity in selected locations in Akwa Ibom state.

“The Commission similarly approved the application for an amendment of the on-grid electricity generating licence to enable Ibom Power Company Ltd embed into the distribution network of Ibom utility company limited,” NERC announced today.

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According to NERC, “Ibom Power is a state government owned gas fired power plant that was licensed on May 12, 2008 to operate a 190megawatts plant. The company on December 19, 2014 submitted an application to amend its licence to 685mw. That application was approved on October 27, 2015.”

Akwa Ibom State is under the Port Harcourt Electricity Distribution Company (PHED). And based on the latest data on electricity generation in Nigeria published by the National Bureau of Statistics (NBS), PHED generated 395.57GWh of electricity in first quarter of 2022 and 377 GWh of electricity at the end of the second quarter of last year, which brought its half year electricity generation to 773 GWh, representing just 6.9% of the total electricity generation in the country as of half year 2022.