Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plcand the promoter of Omotosho and Olorunsogo power generation companies, Sepco Pacific Energy Partners Limited, are at loggerheads over electricity invoices hovering around N13.2bn.
Sepco, which powers South West Nigeria, has, therefore, threatened to initiate action against the Federal Government at the London Court of International Arbitration over the matter.
Denying any wrongdoing however, the manager of Nigerian Electricity Supply industry claimed that the investor owed N15bn in clawback, insisting that it could be out to “blackmail the Federal Government.”
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This is coming few weeks after all of the nation’s 10 distribution companies sued the government foralleged interference in their operations.
Alleging that NBET shunned the Power Purchase Agreement for the Final Settlement Statementissued by the Market Operator, the investorheld that the government agency, under the PPA,reportedly deducted N5.2bn from the GenCos’ accounts, while withholding about N8bn from the company.
The N5bn was allegedly a wrong calculation arising from discrepancies in exchange rate for the electricity supplied for 13 months, while the N8bn was said to be erroneously deducted.
But in a 10-page document dated June 8 2020, the Managing Director of NBET, Marilyn Amobi, insisted that the agency did no wrong in the invoices and deductions.
NBET maintained that by using the capacity values in the FSS and instead of the PPA, the agency complied with the contractual obligations in the purchase pact as well as the rules guiding relationshipsamong the multiple agents in the market.
On the allegation of non-refund of over N5bn invoices, NBET noted that while it based its calculation on an exchange rate of N169 to a dollar, the approved rate as provided under the Multi Year Tariff Orderas at 2013 was N157 to the American currency.
“As you know, since 2017, NBET has made unsuccessful attempts to meet with you and your representatives to resolve the Base Exchange Rate that should be applied to your plants, and to agree on clawback that NBET needs to charge against your plants,” the document stated.
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