The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has granted permits to companies including MTN Communications Nigeria Limited, Golden Penny Power Limited, Havenhill Synergy, and others for mini-grid electricity generation.
The commission, in a report said the permits and three new trading licences were given in the first quarter of 2024.
It said the nine new off-grid generation licences have a gross capacity of 109.69 megawatts.
The approvals are in line with Section 165(1)(m) of the Electricity Act 2023 which permits the commission to award licence of mini-grid concessions to renewable energy companies to exclusively serve a specific geographical location indicating aggregate electricity to be generated and distributed from a site with the obligation to serve customers to request service.
The NERC report indicated that Golden Penny Power Limited got a licence to build six off-grid gas plants in Lagos, Oyo, Ogun, and Cross River states with a total capacity of 100MW, while MTN got a licence to build four captive generation plants across Lagos State with 15.94MW capacity.
SweetCo Foods Limited, African Steel Mills Nigeria Limited, West African Ceramics Limited, Royal Engineered Stones Limited, and Armilo Plastics Limited were also issued permits to generate captive power.
Other companies licensed for mini-grids were Daybreak Power Solutions, TIS Renewable Energy Limited, Auro Nigeria Private Limited, Watts Exchange Limited, Centum Dopemu Energy Services Ltd, DMD Electric Limited Lagos State.
