Electricity production is made up of generation, transmission, distribution, and consumption (customer) in their respective order of origination. The efficiency of Nigeria’s transmission and distribution system is quite poor, so poor that only around 60% of the generated power gets to the end user even though the overall generation itself (4,500MW) is still less than one-tenth of what a country of Nigeria’s size needs (100,000MW) to favourably compete as a global economy fit for the top-20 by the year 2020.
Most of the recent efforts at stepping up power generation feeds to the grid have been based on natural gas fired turbine stations. Even the steam power stations are now being heavily dependent on gas especially piped from the Niger-Delta, a situation that has put the country’s main power supplies in the mercy of vandals and aggrieved militants who use the pipeline for their nefarious activities or as bargain chips for taunting or threatening the government even with the slightest provocation thereby leaving Nigerians in precarious social, economic, and health situations.
Hybridization of conventional power stations is the process of increasing the generation, redundancy, and reliability of conventional power stations like thermal (steam) power plants, gas power plants, and hydro-electric power plants by mixing its production with that of the economically available renewable energy sources in the location. Most steam power stations are located near water bodies with good wind speeds high enough for electricity generation coupled with high solar insolation. Also, most hydro-electric power stations are located in areas with good wind speeds etc. with respect to comprehensive Environmental Impact Assessments (EIA).
In such situations, concentrated solar panels could be deployed in heating the steam or providing part of the heat for the steam in driving the steam turbines which will in effect reduce the amount of natural gas consumption or increase the plant installed generation capacity. In another module, the renewable energy sources could be deployed to supply their own power directly by means of photovoltaic cells to be synchronized with the conventionally generated ones and fed to the grid for onwards transmission to sub stations.
The geographic location and edaphic nature of Nigeria make the idea of hybridization of base power stations with renewable (alternative) energy sources especially feasible, strategically attractive, and commercially viable. Yet no one seems to be paying attention to this. This is so considering that every part of Nigeria is rich in solar energy and a good number of locations have high wind speeds even though more wind-solar data station collating stations are needed for a comprehensive assessment and master plan. The wind speed differentials between two neighbouring locations of say 5KM apart could be very wide due to various factors that may be responsible for such. Renewable energy hybridization of power stations could engender the clustering of power stations to reduce cost and effect positive energy in balancing the overall mix of energy, economics, and the environment to enhance better ecology and maximize space utilization.
This idea is also applicable with distributed generations (DG) or captive stations. The point in it is to reduce cost per kilowatt-hour generated, enhance energy conversion efficiency, increase renewable energy penetration in the national power mix, engender the ease of technical administration and systems control management. The use of jatropha oil and biomass/biogas power generations are not left out in the bounty of nature’s solution to energy crises, as the plantations could also coexist with windmills/turbines and could also grow in arid lands.
In order to take advantage of these hybridization modules, there has to be strong political will on the part of government and concerted efforts in public-private sector partnership. The overall target of modern power generation is to achieve 100% national electricity needs from renewable energy sources. With progress in technology and efficiency of solar, wind, and other alternative energy conversion processes, systems, or modules, the unit cost of power generation from renewable energy sources are bound to reduce progressively. The challenge with the Nigerian situation still remains largely with manufacturing. The present high cost of modules and accessories are due mainly to over reliance in the importation of such modules, small market penetration, and poor technical service provision especially in solar by most service providers which is causing many to have little faith in solar modules.
There’s need to institute good feed-in-tariff (FIT) regime accompanied with good publicity as well as a renewable energy subsidy in place of the existing electricity subsidy to serve as palliative measures for more private sector participation. The hybridization of our main thermal and gas stations with available renewable energy sources is key for the speedy attainment of Nigeria’s electricity needs and in compensating the heavy transmission-distribution losses being experienced in the country. The need to train and equip the human capital base in the power sector especially the foot technicians cannot be over emphasized as a primary factor in the renewable energy program realization.
Christian Okwori
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