Effect of Inadequate Electrification on Nigeria’s Economic Development and Environmental Sustainability

Rural electrification in Nigeria: A review of impacts and effects of frugal energy generation based on some of e-waste components

Nigeria is the seventh most populous country in world being the highest in Africa. The country is blessed with vast natural resources and is one of the highest producers of oil in the world. However, the inadequate supply of electrical energy is a major setback in the nation's economic development. Thus, there is need for an urgent and immediate solution to address the electricity access situation in Nigeria. It is in view of this that we first present an overview of the electrical energy situation of Nigeria (especially in the rural areas). The benefits of rural electrification and it impacts are discussed to buttress the need for electrifying rural areas and an overview of the abundant renewable energy resources in Nigeria is presented. As a proposed solution to improve the electricity situation, the concept of a reuse solar photovoltaic system based on e-waste components and old materials is presented. The system comprises repurposed Power Supply Unit (PSU) from old desktop computers, old thermal car Lead-acid batteries, old solar panels and Uninterruptible Power Supply (UPS) units. The possibility of adopting this solution in Nigeria depends on the amount of e-wastes generated annually thus necessitating the need for an analysis to see the annual impact of this system on electricity access based on the amount of available e-waste. Using the huge amount of e-waste generated/received annually in Nigeria, the feasibility of our solution is assessed by estimating the possible number of households that could be electrified by the second life renewable energy systems we propose. Due to the lack of official data in this field, certain constraints and assumptions were defined for the purpose of this analysis which resulted in obtaining a range of results that showed the possible impacts of adopting the reuse system. The analysis showed the minimum and maximum impacts the reuse solution could have on electricity access in Nigeria, based on best and worst case scenario respectively. The results further showed that an average of 287,000 households can be electrified annually if this solution is adopted, causing 2.2 % increment in population with electricity access in a year (between 620 thousand and 4.1 million individuals). Thus, the result is an indication that it is possible to achieve immediate growth in electricity access based on renewable energy integration, frugal innovation and reuse/repurposing of e-waste materials. In addition, this extension of their lifespan reduces their ecological footprint. It is expected that the energy demands of the continuously growing population can be met by strict adherence to set targets including adoption of smart-grids, generation diversification and focusing on rural electrification.

Juxtaposing Sub-Sahara Africa's energy poverty and renewable energy potential

Recently, the International Energy Agency (IEA) released a comprehensive roadmap for the global energy sector to achieve net-zero emission by 2050. Considering the sizeable share of (Sub-Sahara) Africa in the global population, the attainment of global energy sector net-zero emission is practically impossible without a commitment from African countries. Therefore, it is important to study and analyze feasible/sustainable ways to solve the energy/electricity poverty in Africa. In this paper, the energy poverty in Africa and the high renewable energy (RE) potential are reviewed. Beyond this, the generation of electricity from the abundant RE potential in this region is analyzed in hourly timestep. This study is novel as it proposes a Sub-Sahara Africa (SSA) central grid as one of the fastest/feasible solutions to the energy poverty problem in this region. The integration of a sizeable share of electric vehicles with the proposed central grid is also analyzed. This study aims to determine the RE electricity generation capacities, economic costs, and supply strategies required to balance the projected future electricity demand in SSA. The analysis presented in this study is done considering 2030 and 2040 as the targeted years of implementation. EnergyPLAN simulation program is used to simulate/analyze the generation of electricity for the central grid. The review of the energy poverty in SSA showed that the electricity access of all the countries in this region is less than 100%. The analysis of the proposed central RE grid system is a viable and sustainable option, however, it requires strategic financial planning for its implementation. The cheapest investment cost from all the case scenarios in this study is $298 billion. Considering the use of a single RE technology, wind power systems implementation by 2030 and 2040 are the most feasible options as they have the least economic costs. Overall, the integration of the existing/fossil-fueled power systems with RE technologies for the proposed central grid will be the cheapest/easiest pathway as it requires the least economic costs. While this does not require the integration of storage systems, it will help the SSA countries reduce their electricity sector carbon emission by 56.6% and 61.8% by 2030 and 2040 respectively.

Improved Preventive Maintenance Scheduling for a Photovoltaic Plant under Environmental Constraints

The supply of PV power that satisfies the needs of customers is heavily dependent on the reliability of the generating plants. However, irrespective of the robustness of the design of such physical industrial assets, they tend to depreciate with usage and/or age which, in turn, increases the allowance between the design and the operational capabilities. Therefore, to ameliorate the reliability of the system, a combination of selective and preventive maintenance actions were planned by determining the best combination (optimal preventive maintenance intervals, optimal replaced components). In this work, we developed an optimal preventive maintenance strategy with minimal repair using the iterative numerical technique for a PV plant, with and without considering the influence of environmental conditions on the system. An algorithm was developed on MATLAB to determine the optimal number of preventive maintenance actions that yields the maximum availability by selecting the components to be maintained based on the reliability threshold, without considering the environmental impact on the components. The environmental elements’ criticality was introduced, and the reliability reiterated based on the new technique. Finally, by maximizing the availability of the system, an optimal preventive maintenance for a finite horizon was established.

Assessing the Value of Demand Response in Microgrids

This paper presents a computer application to assist in decisions about sustainability enhancement due to the effect of shifting demand from less favorable periods to periods that are more convenient for the operation of a microgrid. Specifically, assessing how the decisions affect the economic participation of the aggregating agent of the microgrid bidding in an electricity day-ahead market. The aggregating agent must manage microturbines, wind systems, photovoltaic systems, energy storage systems, and loads, facing load uncertainty and further uncertainties due to the use of renewable sources of energy and participation in the day-ahead market. These uncertainties cannot be removed from the decision making, and, therefore, require proper formulation, and the proposed approach customizes a stochastic programming problem for this operation. Case studies show that under these uncertainties and the shifting of demand to convenient periods, there are opportunities to make decisions that lead to significant enhancements of the expected profit. These enhancements are due to better bidding in the day-ahead market and shifting energy consumption in periods of favorable market prices for exporting energy. Through the case studies it is concluded that the proposed approach is useful for the operation of a microgrid.