Nigeria electricity hiccups: Investment in diversified energy mix as viable option

Despite efforts put in by the federal government for years to address the perennial and debilitating challenges in the power sector with a view of making sure that there is available and consistent power, these challenges remained.

The power sector has for over a decade faced several bottlenecks along the electricity value chain from the end of the distribution networks, and TCN and of course the power plants which have slowed the impact of achieving electricity availability to the millions of Nigeria.

It is against this back drop that those who know in the power sector are clamouring for the right incentive for investment in a diversified energy mix which given the current situation is really the best energy security policy that Nigeria need.

A cursory look at the country’s diverse energy resources indicate that until solar and wind become more competitive with respect to pricing, Nigeria has a comparative advantage with gas. So gas will still remain the base load, and we expect that hydro and solar will continue to pick up, particularly in solar, where we have stepped up our game quite a bit.

Industry close watchers remain optimistic about the growing incidence of renewables. The total increase in generated power came from renewables globally. In Africa, we do expect that by 2040, more than 25 per cent of generated power would come from renewables.

In Nigeria, we are talking largely about solar and hydro. As of today, hydro, although it is not very well understood, is a big component of Nigeria’s installed base. But obviously, it is intermittent power because of the seasonal nature of the rains.

According to them, “We have very high generation capacity because Kainji, and Shiroro are operational and are doing fairly well. But as we go into the dry season, we will realise that obviously the intermittency of water supply makes renewables not necessary the base load but a critical part of the energy mix nonetheless”.

Energy experts also insist that the ability to leverage technology to improve power operations using digital solutions like asset performance management systems. This will definitely allow the optimisation of existing assets so that you have reduced down time of systems, more uptime, more generation capacity, more availability, less load shedding, and less frequent incidents of blackouts.

To them, “shifting from looking at very segregated or isolated problems and looking at the system with an end to end approach to solving the power problems would be a huge lift to solving the power problem”.

Industry close watchers further opine that the demand for energy continues to remain very strong; and the gap between consumed electricity and power generated is still very large. The key question is: how do we bridge that gap by solving from end to end of the electricity value chain? So a few of the key takeaways, from the point of view of innovations that have to be adopted in the sector, would be a big focus on technology that can guarantee fast delivery of power.

KELECHI EWUZIE