Alternative power sources and Nigeria’s power challenge (II)

May 31, 2014

 

 

A tilted and cracked electricity pole on Oba Akran Avenue, Ikeja, Lagos...

Nigeria’s power challenge has attracted myriad of solutions from both foreign and local experts over the years. Out of all these, diversification of the country’s power source seems to be a recurrent theme.

But some things have been constant; Nigeria’s power sources have yet to be diversified, consumers still suffer poor power supply and the sector continues to gulp a lot of money.

Few days ago, Vice President Namadi Sambo, said the Federal Government would spend about N652bn on the construction and rehabilitation of transmission infrastructure in the country.

Sambo said the Mambila hydro power project, Zungeru 700 megawatts hydro power project, Gurara Phase II hydro power project and Itisi hydro power project are the new ones targeted to improve power supply in the country.

The Mambila project, which is to be executed under a public private partnership arrangement with consultancy services will cost about $6.4bn, (about N1.7trn). The Vice-President said the government had already released the counterpart fund of $1.6bn for the project.

The combination of this project upon completion has been projected to produce 20,000MW of electricity.

If the recent pronouncement of the Lagos State Government is to be considered, the generation capability of these projects will only take care of four times the size of the cosmopolitan state.

Commissioner for Energy and Mineral Resources, Mr. Taofeek Tijani, had said that according to the power audit recently conducted by the state government, Lagos will need 5,000MW of electricity.

Lagos State is said to be only getting 1,000MW from the power grid, which Tijani said is also shared with a neighbouring state.

For Lagos, Independent Power Project has been its main step in subsidising its power deficit.

“The total national generating capacity at present is about 4, 000 megawatts. The state is only allocated 1,000 megawatts. So, there is a huge deficit in the state,” Tijani said.

In last week’s edition, Power Talkback identified nuclear, solar, wind and biogas as some of the energy sources that experts have proposed as solution to Nigeria’s problems.

However, the Nigeria Atomic Energy Commission has recently disclosed that Nigeria would procure a $6bn (about N972bn) nuclear plant in 2022 to ensure stable power supply in the country for the next 60 years.

According to the European Nuclear Society, of the 31 countries in which nuclear power plants operate, only France, Belgium and Slovakia use them as the primary source of electricity.

Out of the 102,136MW of electricity the United States of America generates, 19 per cent is generated through nuclear power source. France generates 63,130MW, 74.85 per cent of which is sourced through nuclear power plants.

Considering Nigeria’s past promise about building nuclear power plants, some members of the public may likely take the latest NAEC’s pronouncement with a pinch of salt.

In December 2009, after pressure from the Nigerian government, the International Atomic Energy Agency approved Nigeria’s application to build a reactor in Abuja.

At the time, the IAEA reportedly voiced concern about the suitability of nuclear power in Nigeria citing safety and security reasons.

However, the clean energy advocates have said nuclear energy is not a good way to go. According to Conserve Energy Future, three issues make nuclear source of power unsuitable for a country like Nigeria:

- The rare source of power produces radioactive waste

- It is prone to nuclear disaster

- Setting up a nuclear power station is expensive and requires a lot of money.