A recent discussion with the administrator of The AfroBeat, highlighted the need to use improved power generation as the threshold by which Yar'Adua's administration would be judged.
As such, I couldn't overlook news reports that indicate that Nigeria will experience even more power outages because certain power generation plants receive inadequate gas supplies necessary to generate electricity for millions of Nigerians. The drop in gas supplies, which took power generation from 800MW to 100MW at one station, is a result of the dry season, when the dams that supply water to the hydroelectric power plants are at their lowest level, "thereby limiting their generating capacity and ability to augment the thermal units" according to ThisDay newspaper.
ANY SOLUTIONS?
For those of you that are much more knowledgeable about these issues, what can be done to prevent the constant degradation of power supply in Nigeria? Are there any known plans on how the nation will address the power crunch? Being that hydroelectricity plays such an important role to the electricity supply, what innovations are needed to improve power generation for a nation that still needs to get electricity to the many villages that have no power, talk less of the towns and cities that are on the power grid but receive little to no electricity. I read some time ago about Nuclear power being a future possibility in Nigeria, but I am definitely not comfortable with that for various reasons. Anyway, if anyone has ideas, I am curious and would love to read them. It is clear that for Nigeria to advance the way we all want it to, electricity will be a key element and we have to figure out how to adequately deal with this matter.
Further Reading:
- More Solar Energy Plans
- Solar Energy Plans
- Could Coal Be A Power Solution For Nigeria
- Nigeria Is Full Of Gas
- Power Blackouts Loom Across Nigeria
- Nigerian Power Scandal: Authority Stealing
- Who Will Develop Nigeria?
- Who Will Develop Nigeria Pt. 2
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9 Curiosities. Add Yours.:
when it comes2nepa n there problems....i really dont know what to say.......dangote said his worth more than oprah before the forbes ratings cameout.....i laffed loud....anywais thanx4stoppin on my blog,i have updated!
Solar power has not been tapped to 0.1% of its potential. My friend's grandma in Lagos has solar panels that provide electricity when NEPA decides to go AWOL. There's windmill technology that can be tapped at a very basic level with regards to necessary infrastructure (check out William Kamkwamba's story or his blog - http://williamkamkwamba.typepad.com/). I don't know what to do about NEPA but i agree that that needs to be YarAdua's metric for success in a year. He's set up his Presidential Committee for the Accelerated Expansion of Nigeria’s Power Infrastructure whose mandate is 6000 additional megawatts in 18months. so what happens if they fail? what happens if HE fails? he needs to up the stakes on himself i believe.
thanks for opening up this debate to new ideas, Lord knows we need them.
I think what was done to Nitel should be done to Nepa-privatisation. I really don't see any improvement as long as it remains a government body. I genuinely think that Yaradua does not know the depth of the problem but those who know do. Most generator importers are govt officials, the ones who are not still benefit from bribery. It has been rumoured that Mikano(one of the largest generator importers in Naija)regularly gives loads of money to officials. Little wonder 16billion was spent last year without improvement. THEY do not want an improvement.
Yardy has called on Israel, China etc to help us out of the power problem, he should stop running round the place. Open up the market, let the investors come in, the competition will make Nepa sit up if they want to, if not, too bad. Let Nigerians have several energy choices.
It is a shame but Nitel failed, Nigerian Airways failed and NEPA(PHCN) has failed. We have to look elsewhere for the answers.
Praise Jesus someone (theafrobeat) mentioned solar power.
Sure, its expensive to develop NOW, when vastly ignored, but it'd save so much money in the long run....
its reports like these that make me wish that i had read engineering. maybe it is time to pave new roads towards alternative power sources. wish i had more answers.
hey, your comments page is back to normal!
i get really sick when people mention the 'national grid'. we dont have anything sp-called. like everything wrong with nigeria, centralisation is a major cause of the problem. the phcn should be broken down to state level, much like the police should.
i am with afrobeat regarding the exploration of solar power (we are nigeria afterall, not some scandinavian country which receives sunlight for some few days a year-i've heard) and wind power...especially with all the talk of global warming...reliance on hydropower may not even be a good option in the future because of how detrimental it can be to the environment...
...it always throws me how there are places in the world with no electricity to light just their home while places like the us waste electricity each year to light decorative lights during festive times of the year...well any big city for that matter (calabar did too during christmas)...yeah, i wish i could have read everything in school so i could have ideas on how to solve all the problems...maybe next life...
would there be any demand if there was a system that could provide lights for Nigerian homes, off the grid, using solar power? it would only power lighting inside the home but isn't that better than nothing?
@ Andrew: Yes, there is demand for such "off-grid" solar energy. A recent search on google showed that. However, it's never that simple. Bringing in the equipment needed to power a singular home or group of homes, can be complicated at best. Importation fees, tariffs, bribes, transportation cost, installation costs...
I am sure there are those that have figured out how to get their homes/establishments to effectively use solar energy, I just am not sure how they achieved it. Thanks for stopping by and taking an interest in this topic. I see that you are with the REA. I'd love to ask you a few questions based on your experience. I will search for your contact info, but if you see this before I find your info, please contact me using the 'contact' button at the to of the page.
Thanks.
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