FG Moves to Minimize Electricity Wastage
I have read recently, the setting up of a committee to look into ways of minimising conserving Electricity consumption by the Presidential Adviser on Power. Whilst I fully support the move, I am very weary as to what thinking has gone into the process leading to the setting up of the committee. I am also very sceptical at what the outcome of the committee will be when its composition is mainly persons from non-performing agencies like the PHCN, NERC and a few distribution companies. Not even persons from professional organisations, private sector or diaspora.
Demand side management which is the focus of the committee is a relatively new concept. Following the adoption Kyoto protocol in 1997, the EU in 2010 made commitments to 8% reduction of green house gases and also to increase renewable energy by 21%. Demand side management became an issue for adoption to ensure that there is effort from both sides; consumers and generators in the drive for energy conservation so as to achieve meaningful results. Even in advanced democracies like the UK, the Government and the Energy companies are still facing huge challenges making a headway to full demand side management. Demand side management requires putting in place policies and measures to control and encourage reduced demand/consumption with a tendency to focus on residential and commercial users. It is majorly a responsibility of Utility companies and requires organisational, technical and behavioural solutions to achieve this.
Now, let us look at the three key issues in the case of Nigeria:
1. Organisational solutions:- are measures adopted by the utilities include pricing mechanism, awareness campaigns and regular facilities upgrades to ensure that losses are minimised in the network and not transferred to the users. In Nigeria, there is lack of adequate facilities to generate electricity. Huge no. of obsolute equipment are left in service. There is even inadequate data to show the inventory of obsolete electrical equipment let alone developing plans for upgrade. Therefore the inefficiencies of the generator PHCN is passed on the the user. Every time I drive by PHCN transformers or Switchgears even here in Abuja, I feel sick because I have worked in the UK as an electrical engineer and I cannot believe how obsolete and unsafe these equipment are. I actually wonder how PHCN manages to keep them in service. No wonder you find protective devices like fuses tied with copper wire! In the UK, the people in charge of such equipment would be in jail!
2. Technical solutions: again these are engineering measures adopted majorly by the Utilities in ensuring that efficiencies are increase in other to reduce waste at the generators end and to cut down on transmission and distribution losses. However, one critical element that comes to play here is adequate and appropriate metering. Metering is very important because it enables you identify what is happening and where? For instance,how do we know how much losses are in the network and at what side of the divide? You have to optimise the system before moving on to conserving energy. Apart from the current efforts in installing new substations and transmission lines, not much is done about removing old inefficient equipment from the network to cut down on losses. Meters are not installed for probably over 60% of users who have paid for the meters. PHCN benefits from fixed prices from unmetered users. I personally have been on fixed bill because PHCN has refused to install a meter in the my house and they have fixed my bills at N5,000.00 monthly when all I have is lighting bulbs and a TV. If metered, I would probably not even pay N2000 in a month. All effort to complain to the manager has been fruitless. Even a letter to the NERC has not been replied. Now without meter how do you convince a user to switch off electrical equipment which is not been used. Personally, I switch off my lights and equipment when not in use because I have learnt the benefit of doing so while living in another society but I notice that majority of Nigerians do not care. Why should they? When they still pay a fixed bill even if they turn off their equipment and worse still even when there is not supply? Also there appear to be a lack of regulations on the quality of electrical installation in buildings. Not even a single test is carried out after installation. Usually, a series of test is carried out to ensure that an installation is correct and safe to operate but in Nigeria, you find wrong connections everywhere with some buildings perpetually carrying overload currents. I have even found several cases of wrong wire sizes. Voltage drop is not an issue for technicians so you find a situation where there is a dip when you put on load within the building or perhaps when your neighbour switches on his Air conditioner, your light dips. This is obviously poor design/installation but who cares? PHCN, NERC, etc doesnt!
3. Behavioral solutions, this is the where the consumers come in. However, it is the utilities/government that plays the role in using organisational and technical solutions to try and INFLUENCE consumer behaviour to bring about conservation of energy through awareness campaigns to remind users of the benefits of using less power and savings that can be derivable.
Now haven said the above, I hope that every reader can see clearly why jumping into setting a committee to look into conserving energy may not deliver any meaningful results. I would suggest that Barth Nnaji pays more attention to reducing losses in the network and ensuring appropriate regulatory framework to ensure best practice in installations. If possible Barth, should bring the Presidential influence to force PHCN to provide meters for all users and then he can have a basis for encouraging users to reduce demand because this way everybody will understand and feel the benefit from the savings that they can get for reducing their demand without losing comfort.
Lewis
