Nigeria's energy poverty: Insights and implications for smart policies and framework towards a smart Nigeria electricity network

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Abstract

A thorough and exhaustive review of relevant literature and associated works is carried out to critically examine energy poverty in Nigeria with respect to ownership and income. Using the desktop approach and empirical formulas, the persistent failure of public infrastructure like healthcare, education and security to the poor electricity generation, transmission and distribution capacity in the country is examined; alongside current government's contribution to buoying our generation capacity and electricity access through policies and investment. The findings of the review reveal the urgent need for the smart roll out of distributed generation units in order to stimulate and encourage the ongoing diversification of the economy and also the need for a sustainable road map that incorporates the successes of countries faced with similar challenges. This review paper also proposes the need for palliatives in form of subsidized solar home systems (SHSs) through a sustainable and economically viable means for off grid homes to assuage the effects of non-availability of grid electricity.

Introduction

Previous and ongoing literatures have to a large extent presented the state of electricity capacity – generation, transmission and distribution in sub-Sahara Africa (SSA). It has been severally posited that there are over 1 billion people worldwide without access to electricity, with about 85% of them residing in rural areas in SSA and South Asia [1], [2], [3]. The role of energy, though not expressly stated to the success of the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) was generally established at the World Summit on Sustainable Development (WSSD) held in South Africa in 2002 [4]. It is a common fact that lack of access to modern energy sources has been opined to impede economic and societal development [4], [5], [6], thus, the provision of electricity to residents of developing countries is an incentive for improved economic and social development [7], [8].

The inter-relationship between energy and poverty which has been established [9], [10], [11] has been shown to be the primary problem of energy security, affecting mostly women and children of developing countries [12]. While high poverty prevalence is known to affect the energy consumption pattern of households, their access to clean and reliable energy is believed to aid in alleviating poverty as increase access to energy allows for more growth economically [13], [14]. Energy poverty therefore for the purpose of this work is defined to be the lack of access to electricity [15], leading to dependence on biomass for meeting cooking and heating needs, a view further corroborated and established as being prevalent in developing countries especially in SSA and Asia [3].

The essentiality and importance of energy to sustainable development [16] and its centrality to modern life notwithstanding, there has been no guaranteed and sustained universal access to energy (electricity) especially in developing countries. For instance, only 13% of the population of Burma is opined to have access to electricity [17] which pales when compared to the over 80 million Nigerians without access to electricity. This lack of access to electricity is further established by the high percentage of such countries population living in rural communities and below the poverty line. A World Bank report posits that Nigeria's official poverty rate remained at an alarming 62% (in strictly per capita terms) with another report putting the rural population at 66.67% of her official population [18], [19].

Solutions have been proffered for improved electricity access and delivery to Nigerians. These range from policy change/development [14], [19], [20], [21], [22], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], increased government investments [20], [29], diversification of energy base (to accommodate renewable energy sources) to smart grids [14], [19], [20], [21], [23], [24], [25], [26], [27], [28], [29], [30], [31], [32], embedded (distributed) generation [14], [19], [20], [23], [25], [26], advanced metering infrastructure etc. These arguments have also basically established energy security, economic growth and carbon emission reductions as underlying factors for a more improved electricity network. However, these proffered solutions have not been able to justify the seemingly low electricity per capita of Nigeria when compared to other SSA, Asian and OECD countries.

This work therefore seeks to show statistically and through related literature a justification for the low electricity per capita of Nigeria, linking it to income and ownership. It is also further proffered in this work that for an increased electricity access and economic growth, ‘individualized and unconventional smart distributed generation and pricing schemes’ would be a better solution to large/medium distributed generators. This work further critiques some proposed solutions in existing literature and government's continued investment in centralized generation highlighting vis-vis the prevailing economic recession and difficulty in accessing foreign exchange (FOREX).

The rest of the paper is organized as follows: Section 2 presents some statistics about Nigeria. Section 3 briefly presents the history of electricity generation in Nigeria. Section 4 presents and evaluates the electricity poverty in Nigeria. Obvious justifications for Nigeria's high energy poverty are presented in Section 5 while a review of the key renewable energy sources being exploited in Nigeria is presented in Section 6. A way forward through the renewable energy master plan (REMP) alongside its supporting structures – technology, skilled manpower, incentives, financing etc. is presented in Section 7 while an unconventional mini-grid roll out is proposed in Section 8. The paper is concluded in Section 9.

Section snippets

Basic statistics about Nigeria

Nigeria lies in the west coast of Africa and occupies a land area of about 923, 768 km2 [33] as seen in Table 1. It is also observed from the Table 1 that Nigeria is made up of 36 states grouped into six geo-political zones and one Federal Capital Territory (FCT) as shown in Fig. 1. It is further observed from the Table 1 that about 51% of the nation's population now reside in the urban areas with about 51% of the population made up of males.

Brief history of electricity generation and management in Nigeria

The history of electricity generation in Nigeria started in 1896 in the city of Lagos. In 1929, the Nigeria Electricity Supply Company (NESCO) started operations in the northern part of the country as an electric utility company with the construction of a hydroelectric power (HEP) station at Kurra near Jos. The establishment of the Electricity Corporation of Nigeria (ECN) in 1951 through an act of parliament was the country's first attempt at coordinating electricity supply and development. The

Energy (electricity) poverty in Nigeria

The concept of energy poverty in Nigeria has been severally dissected and studied by researchers as earlier pointed out. To further buttress earlier cited literature, it is estimated that about 15.3 million households lack access to grid electricity with supply being erratic for those connected to the grid. Table 9 shows the average number of interruptions on the Nigerian grid between Jan 2008 and December 2004 just before the enactment of the EPSRA. The continued growing trend in the poverty

Obvious justification for Nigeria's high energy poverty

Having successfully presented the energy (electricity) scenario in Nigeria, it is important to note the following:

  • I.

    The idea of having a generalized value for the electricity per capita for Nigeria does not give a true and holistic view to the huge disparity in grid (electricity) access in Nigeria. As earlier pointed out, a huge percentage of households in the northern part of Nigeria are not connected to the grid compared to states in the south. Although, it has been generally stated that the

A brief of Nigeria's renewable energy potentials

Very briefly in this section, solar, wind and hydro potentials are to be discussed. The discussion ranges from a general overview of their measurement and applications/ongoing utilization projects (if any) in the country.

The way forward

In a recent work by [48], the concept of load partitioning was proposed as a viable means to increasing the penetration of solar energy in Nigeria. However, while it can be agreed with the authors that lighting has the highest impact on the quality of life of Nigerians, we disagree with the proposed load partitions being adopted by the authors considering that a majority of the electrical equipment considered in the various classes are only available to a few of the urban population and

Unconventional Mini-grids to the rescue

The REMP which has been exhaustively critiqued was among other things poised to:

  • Gradually move the Nigerian economy from a monolithic fossil economy to one that is driven by an increasing share of renewable energy.

  • Exploit renewable energy in quantities and at prices capable of promoting the achievement of equitable and sustainable growth.

  • Encourage the transition from crude oil to a less carbon intensive economy that depends on an increasing contribution from gas and renewable energy.

Conclusion

The importance of energy (electricity) has been explicitly shown to be a driver of any economy [57], [58], [59]. This work has addressed the energy (electricity) poverty in Nigeria by critically examining the generation, transmission and distribution of electricity. It has been shown that with current policies and existing infrastructure on ground, government is not poised to achieving much considering the low hourly electricity per capita for Nigerian's which has been shown to vary across the

Acknowledgement

The financial assistance of the Shell Petroleum Development Company of Nigeria Limited (SPDC) and the National Research Foundation (NRF) towards this research is hereby acknowledged. Opinions expressed and conclusions arrived at, are those of the authors and are not necessarily to be attributed to the NRF.

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