Nigeria needs $34.5bn investments to bridge electricity gap by 2030

Nigeria would need to invest $34.5 billion to provide electricity access by 2030, according to a new report by the Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency Association-Alliance (REEEA-A).

The Renewable Energy Roadmap Nigeria report revealed that Nigeria would need to invest $4.93 billion annually in the next seven years to meet the target of delivering 20,000 megawatts (MW) to over 200 million population.

According to the Nigeria Electricity System Operator’s data, the country’s current electricity supply is around 4,500MW even with the capacity to generate 13,000MW, indicating the struggle to meet the demands of its citizens.

The report maintained that the situation was fuelled by problems, including a lack of gas, machine breakdowns, seasonal water shortages and limited grid capacity.

According to the report, this has resulted in frequent blackouts, while many households and businesses take to self-generation off-grid electricity using diesel and gasoline generator sets.

“Around $34.5 billion in total investment will be required to provide electricity access to all households by 2030. Nigeria’s electricity supply system can be grouped into two: Centralised (grid-connected) and decentralised (off-grid) systems.

“The centralised system consists of the large-scale generation of electricity at centralised facilities such as large hydro and thermal plants. The decentralised electricity supply system consists of a few kilowatts to megawatt capacities such as captive diesel and gasoline generator sets as well as renewable energy technologies (such as solar home systems, streetlights and mini-grids).

“The total installed capacity of grid-based systems is around 13 gigawatts (GW). However, today’s available on-grid peak generation varies and hovers around 4.5 GW,” the report stated.

According to the REEEA-A, Nigeria’s on-grid generation is dominated by natural gas power stations (86 percent) and large hydropower plants (14 percent). However, unavailability of gas, machine breakdowns, seasonal water shortages and limited grid capacity have severely limited the operational performance of these power plants.