As the country continues to suffer from daily power cuts, experts are looking for alternative energy-saving options. DANIEL ESSIET writes
Despite efforts to boost electricity, homes and companies are still experiencing lengthy power outages. The government attributes this to increased electricity demand.
For watchers, there is too little power available. Supply isn’t catching up with the demand. Household electricity accounts for the bulk of electricity usage, followed by industry and public facilities.
For watchers, Nigeria needs more power stations, but these take time to build and for too long the investments in updating existing stations haven’t been made.
In response, the Managing Director of Niger Delta Power Holding Company Limited (NDPHC), James Olotu, said challenges facing power generation and energy, are traceable to the many years of ill-advised strategic planning, investment and delays in infrastructure construction.
He said 10 new power projects, which are projected to deliver additional 4,770 Mega Watts (MW) to national grid will come on stream.
Olotu, who stated this investment scheme during the inauguration of the 150MVA transmission station in Ikeja West, Lagos said these facilities have continued to impact positively on power supply in the country.
He said: “This initiative is expected to bring into existence 10 more power stations that will give Nigerians not less than 4,770 MW of power, when completed. We are also building hundreds of thousands of kilometre of transmission lines across the nooks and crannies of this country, including substations to support the transmission lines.
“We are also building several thousand kilometres for distribution in addition to infrastructure and substations to support it. These projects also include the gas pipelines within the same fund to ensure that gas flows into the generating plants.
“Out of the 10 power plants, four are on stream, such as Olorunshogo in Ogun State, Omotosho in Ondo State, Sapele in Delta State and Alaoji in Abia State has added new units of power into the grid.”
Total capacity from this new unit is about 1,150 MW. As part of the unit delivery, we expect that every month those power stations would be delivering the balance from their units into the grid. So that by December, we will be looking at about 1,500MW. Other six power generation stations are at about 80 per cent completed, and we will get to inaugurate them soon. So by the end of the year, we are expecting additional 2,500MW from all these stations I have mentioned,” he said.
But watchers said all these will not tackle the consumption challenges. The savings in the form of led negawatts, a theoretical unit of power representing energy saved, would reduce the need to build more fossil-fuel power stations.
Speaking with The Nation, he Director-General, Kaduna Business School,Alhaji Dahiru Sani said small changes, such as setting air conditioners a few degrees higher or turning off lights in unused rooms, can help reduce the load on the grid.
He said Nigerians should look for short-term solutions to reduce the strain on the country’s electricity grids. Consequently, more Nigerians who buy a refrigerator, freezer, washing machine, air conditioner or electric water heater, check the energy labels. He said education and more awareness campaigns are needed if the country is to ever change its consumption patterns.
He said with solar panels or wind turbines attached to buildings , even if a disaster takes out a plant, commercial enterprises will be able to continue to work.
These ideas, Sani explained is gaining popularity in other countries where the cost of electricity is high and there is strong financial incentive to provide one’s own power.
As the energy problem grows, he said more Nigerians need to turn to green technologies in their homes.
According to him, the government needs to be thinking about how to create different policies to encourage innovations and improve grid reliability and resilience.
Sani said the government should work out plans to reduce domestic and non-domestic electricity demand across the nation, beyond that expected from activities already in place, by a range of measures.
According to him, innovative uses of real time energy consumption data combined with targeted recommendations can encourage households to reduce their electricity consumption.
In the non-domestic building sector, he noted there appears to be significant potential to drive more electricity savings through measures such as high efficiency lighting, lighting controls and HVAC controls.
He stressed that cutting the amount of electricity used will not only save money on bills and reduce the need for new generation capacity, nut it makes good business sense too.
According to him, there are a number of critical input that either have to be maintained or further developed to realise the nation’s ambitious energy goals. At a national level, consumers will be required to radically evolve the way that they power, heat and light their homes.
He urged the government to encourage micro-hydro programs to support broader community and economic growth..
He said local residents can organize the labour efforts and took a personal stake in the project.
Sani said a pragmatic energy policy is necessary as the country experiences challenges with power generation, and this handicap has the potential of throwing the economy out of gear, as well as undermining foreign direct investment into the country. Additionally, critical industriaisation policy might be in limbo if measures are not instituted to address this shortfall. That is why, he noted, has become critical to diversify energy-generation sources.
For a longer-term, more sustainable energy mix and set of policies, the Vice-Chancellor, Federal University of Technology, Akure (FUTA), Prof Biyi Daramola, said the government needs to explore options around renewable and clean energy generation (wind, wave, solar), energy conservation (including introduction of smart grids, smart power metering and LED lights), pumped water storage.
He said there are several renewable energy resources in the country andthe government should encourage the development of these resources.
Demand for renewable energy has been held back in emerging economies like Ghana by high costs, but a recent glut of solar panels on the world market has seen prices tumble downwards, much to the advantage of countries like Ghana. The country’s forward-thinking strategy puts it in a strong position to lead the renewable energy revolution in sub-Sahara Africa.
He said the energy technology roadmaps should point the way to a sustainable energy future for the nation.
He said the roadmaps should play an important role in helping identify opportunities and challenges, and in accelerating efforts at the national level.
As yuletide season approaches, Nigerians have continued to groan under intense electric power outage. As if the heat accompanied by this massive power blackout is not enough, the nation’s power utility company, Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN), has continued to distribute outrageously high bills, popularly known as crazy bills, to virtually all consumers.This is coming even as the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), the connecting company between generation and distribution, claims that it is currently transmitting over 4,000 Megawatts to distribution companies across the country.The reasons for the current situation has been blamed on system collapse, which occurred on Thursday, November 29, due to a fault on the 330kv transmission line from Benin to Onitsha and the shutdown of Escravos Gas Plant, causing the combined nationwide shutdown of 3,716MW, the shutdown of three units of the Egbin Power Station and the closure of transmission stores, which house maintenance spare parts for PHCN facilities.
