A simple power solution for Nigeria...

Here's an ingenious idea, to answer this question: how can the power situation be radically improved in Nigeria, without a single new power station being built (or not built, as the case may be)? The supplementary question is: and how can the situation be improved and create jobs/businesses in the process?

The potential solution is so ingeniously simple, it would probably never work. Here goes:

Fact 1: Nigeria's grid currently powers around 1-2,000MW of power per day - via PHCN (formerly known as NEPA).

Fact 2: Meanwhile, the sum total of independently-generated power is somewhere between 40-50,000MW (at least twenty times as much as the grid produces). The large bulk of this power comes from small and medium size generators - there are estimated to be 500,000 of them in the country.

Fact 3: The trouble is, the lion's share of this independently-generated power is not efficiently used. Take our compound as a classic example. While we use a 2.3KVA pure sine wave inverter, which works brilliantly and gives us 24/7 guaranteed power with no fuel charges, Alhaji downstairs has a 40kva generator (ie quite big machine), that slurps diesel like the hungry beast it is. At most with all his ACs on, Alhaji needs 10-15kva power, meaning that his genset is permanently under-used. As all engineers know, under-utilisation of big machines is usually a no-no. The engine wears out more quickly, and its hardly an efficient use of diesel. Worse still, the carbon footprint is unnecessarily widened.

Solution: So, and here's the brilliant bit: what if generator sets like Alhajis were put to better use by distributing the power generated in the immediate neighbourhood? The business opportunity is to turn the tens of thousands of similarly under-utilised gensets into microgrid systems. The owners of the gensets would make money out of their own power back-up system, in effect obtaining subsidised back-up power.

That's the idea in a nutshell. The details could easily be worked out. For example, a subsidiary of PHCN, or perhaps better, NERC, could be set up to regulate this SME market. There would be a licence system required, and specifically authorised metering equipment that is regularly checked (perhaps with remote monitoring by an sms device built into the meter - not exactly hi-tech these days). The microgrid would only 'kick-in' when NEPA fails (just as an inverter does) so it would not actually be competing with the national grid, merely complementing it. The costs of regulation could even be generated (at least in part) by the regulator taking a percentage of the metering bill.

In the case of our Alhaji, he has in effect 25KW to 'sell' to the neighbouring houses. As we get by fine on 2.5KW back up, that's theoretically enough for up to ten houses (so long as the microgrid does not involve ACs).

The beauty of it is that the total power generation figure of 40-50,000MW becomes theoretically available for more efficient distribution, creating real business opportunities in the process, with no capital outlay of any significance to the govt.

Is this idea far too simple and ingenious or what?

If the idea was piloted in a few places, who knows?