Optimising Nigerians’ energy sources as option to boost power output
Despite Nigeria’s abundance energy sources, power generation output at the moment leaves little to be desired. This is as a result of the absence of any strategic government policy to harness other energy sources.
According to the Infrastructure Master Plan document presented by the administration of Goodluck Jonathan, Nigeria targets to increase power generation to 40 gigawatts by 2020. In the projection, generating capacity should increase to 35 GW in 2015, while it is expected to further triple to 105 GW in 2025 before slowing down to reach 164 GW in 2030.
However going by recent statistics, Nigeria’s per capita electricity generation is among the lowest in the world with level of 140Kwh to 1,110kwh as at 2015, this shortfall is limiting economic growth and productivity due to impact on practically all other sectors.
As in most sectors of the economy, the energy sector which comprises the oil and gas as well as the power subsectors represent one of the most important sectors to Nigeria because of its multiplier effect across all sectors of the economy, its contribution to tax revenues, and its potential to spur significant economic growth.
Industry watchers in the wake of these realities express concern over the state of the power generation in Nigeria stressing that the growing shortfall in electricity generation which resulted in various disruptions to the operations of other enterprises in the economy have brought untold hardship to citizens that bear the brunt of this power shortfall.
Electricity supply or the lack of it will remain a very sensitive issue. The absence of a government energy policy think tank has in no small way hindered investments in the sector for decades.
Nigeria and her electricity challenge
It is not hard to decipher that energy crisis in Nigeria has for several decades hindered her economic development. There is an extreme electricity deficiency in Nigeria, the largest economy in Africa by GDP and the causes of this deficiency are related to financial, socio-political, and structural issues.
Nigeria continues to grapple with the challenge of high-energy loss due to the physical deterioration of the transmission and distribution facilities, an inadequate metering system and an increase in the incidence of power theft through illegal connections.
In the midst of all these challenges, Nigerian government has not been able to find permanent solutions that will resolve the problems despite abundance of renewable energy potentials.
Smart Amaefula a climate change expert in a recent article said that “long-term investments in renewable energies like solar and wind have the potential to contribute significantly to the electricity deficiency. The theoretical framework of the energy policy outlined by the Nigerian government seems promising, but there is a discontinuity, however, between implementation and plan”.
Nigeria receives about 4909.212 kWh of energy from the sun which is equivalent to about 1.082 million tonnes of oil; this is about 4000 times the current crude oil production per day, and also put at about 13 thousand times of daily natural gas production based on energy unit”, he said.
Experts views on energy mix for Nigeria
Nigeria may never achieve a sustainable power supply until it diversifies her energy sources and reduce the over reliance on gas, energy experts warn. The energy mix according to experts requires involvement of alternative energy sources like solar, wind and coal which are in abundance in several regions of the country.
Nigeria’s over dependence on gas-fired power plants is not sustainable especially as the gas pipelines are prone to vandalism.
Report indicates that currently Nigeria depends on an estimate of 1.1 trillion standard cubic feet of gas per day from Escravos Lagos Pipeline System which serve as a back bone of power supply.
According to Dolapo Oni, Head, Energy Research, Ecobank Development Company (EDC) Nigeria Limited, “Nigeria needs to look at harnessing other sources of power; we need diversify our energy base because 70 percent concentration of gas as a major energy base is too much as it renders us vulnerable whenever there is an attack on gas trunk lines”.
Most countries around the world do not allow a particular source of energy to control more than 50 percent of their power output. Nigeria, according to Oni, need to consider the option of actually burning light crude oil in place of gas as is applicable in neighbouring Ghana.
“The option of burning light crude will cushion the effect of gas shortage whenever there is gas problem. This is something we can look at because we have adequate oil that we are not able to sell in the first place, so why don’t we use them for power”, Oni added.
He further highlighted that a country like Germany gets 47 percent of their power from wind while they rely on nuclear for 30 percent of power. “Various countries around the world try to segment their source of energy output without allowing one source to control larger percent”.
For Dada Thomas, managing director, Frontier Oil Limited, the energy mix for Nigeria should be deployed based on the comparative advantage that each regions in the country have.
“Solar should be the major source of energy in the northern part of Nigeria, Hydro one of the cleanness is already in existence, gas which represents 70 percent of current sources, coal in Enugu state, wind, Biomass etc.
Thomas insists that a clear government policy on the right energy sources to adopt will attract the needed investment. “We must drive Nigeria in this direction, but my view is that solar will beat all of these other sources of energy. The cost of solar per kilowatts is dropping at a ridiculous rate”, he said.
Analysts called for the implementation of blueprints of renewable energy technologies, direct capturing of the excess solar energy, abundant in Nigeria.
KELECHI EWUZIE