The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) is plans to integrate rules that would require power-sector companies to use a digital system for tracking spare parts and supplies across generation, transmission and distribution. The Technical Regulation Division has sketched a “Smart Inventory System” to supplant manual spreadsheets and fragmented record-keeping with centralized, data-driven monitoring.
The plan responds to frequent equipment breakdowns and lengthy outages that industry players blame on poor spare‑parts planning. Because GenCos, TCN and DisCos keep inventories in separate, often inconsistent records, shortages are frequently discovered only after faults occur. Stocks are sometimes unavailable because items are reserved for other jobs, damaged, pending inspection, obsolete or stored in the wrong location — all factors that delay repairs and force costly emergency buys.
If adopted, the rule would compel operators to digitize their inventories and run analytics that track inventory movement, lead times, item condition and usage trends. The system would forecast demand, set minimum safety stocks and reorder points, and issue alerts when supplies approach critical levels. It would also audit procurement performance, check that material requests match deliveries, flag commonly short items and evaluate how well sites are prepared for emergencies.
In a demonstration using transformer oil, the platform showed that although records listed 16 drums, only eight were immediately usable after excluding reserved and uninspected units. By combining consumption rates, supplier lead times and safety-stock rules, it detected a shortfall and recommended restocking and releasing quality‑cleared drums. NERC expects the Smart Inventory System to turn maintenance, procurement and fault records into actionable intelligence that improves planning, shortens restoration times and raises operational readiness across NESI once the regulation is finalized.
