Addressing Nigeria’s electricity generation, availability challenges

THE country failed to meet its 2020 electricity generation target of 40 GW, and presently, the installed capacity stands at about 13 GW, while the available capacity hovers around six GW. While the electricity average per capita consumption of the United States stands at 12,497kWh per year, that of South Africa stands at 3,200kWh per year, that of Nigeria stands at a ridiculous value of 120 kWh per year, which is 2.8 times lower than the average for sub-Saharan Africa. The value for Nigeria was peaked in the year 2014 at 173 kWh per year, and with this data, we can see the reason for the downturn in the country’s economy: A nexus exists between a nation’s electricity supplies and its level of growth and industrial advancement.

Many manufacturing and production outfits in the country have been forced out of operation due to epileptic power supplies, and if care is not taken, many more will be forced to do so.

The Nigerian government had at several times come up with policy formations to address the problem of epileptic electricity supplies, and the populace have at many times greeted such with a high level of euphoria. however, this has always been disappointing. These policies have not been entirely faulty, but maybe some fundamental issues have not been addressed: the generation and supply mode. The country relies heavily on the centralised electricity generation mode which entails the shipment of all generated electricity to a central grid from where it is now transmitted to different substations across the country. Although a great level of reliability can be achieved with this mode, it is, however, plagued by high losses during transmission and grid collapse which is very common in the country. Another electricity generation mode: decentralised/distributed generation which entails the use of the generated electricity in the vicinity of the generating plants can however, come to the rescue based on its merits; security, energy efficiency, and cost as now discussed.

Energy security: Many parts of the country have their peculiar resources from which electricity can be generated; solar and wind in the North; solar, mini/microhydro and gas in the South. This makes it possible to have secure generation in different parts of the country that are not susceptible to security challenges in another part of the country that can be the bane of centralised generation.

Energy efficiency: The high level losses experienced on the nations’ electricity transmission grid network take a huge toil on the efficiency of a centralised electricity generation network. These losses are, however, reduced/eliminated in the decentralised/distributed electricity generation network making it to be more efficient.

Cost: while the economics of scale favours centralised electricity generation, the capital cost requirements for its plant construction is huge and the construction period also high.

 The capital cost requirements for decentralised/distributed electricity generation plants are however lower and lesser time is required for the construction. The cost competitiveness for decentralised/distributed electricity generation is also boosted with the need not to invest in robust transmission infrastructure, asides the elimination of the cost of the attendant energy losses in the lines. The huge cost of shipment of electricity to rural areas have always hitherto, been a great challenge to rural electrification, however, it is expected that the government policies addressed to bridge urban and rural electrification will fully adopt decentralised/distributed electricity generation to bring down cost and help bring succor to the residents of the areas. Experience has shown that many projects in the country become abandoned due to scarcity of funds and long timelines.

Decentralised/distributed electricity generation will allow for lower investment funds, speedy completion and fast returns on investment and pave way for more investment. It is expected that the government participate at all levels and also create an enabling environment for investors by building mini-grids for the adoption of decentralized/distributed electricity generation. This will help as a quick fix to the epileptic electricity supplies being experienced in the country due to the lower required investment cost and period of construction, better efficiency, and better secured mode. This is asides the better suitability of decentralised/distributed electricity generation from renewables which can help the country to reduce its carbon footprints and contribute to meeting the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) 1, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, and 13 of the United Nations.

• Towoju, an engineer and Associate Professor in the Department of Mechanical Engineering at Lead City University, Ibadan, writes in via [email protected].

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