Wale Yusuff Provides Interesting Insights Into Power Blackouts In Nigeria

<p><em>Wale Yusuff Provides Interesting Insights<&sol;em><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>Wale Yusuff&comma; Managing Director&comma; Wartsila Marine &amp&semi; Power Services Nigeria Ltd is providing interesting insights into the latest power blackouts in Nigeria and explains how the power system could be made much more resilient&period;<&sol;strong><br &sol;>&NewLine;<strong>His thoughts&comma; made available to <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;openlife&period;ng&sol;">OpenLife Nigeria<&sol;a> by Alesia Communications&comma; are published below<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>On 28 May 2021&comma; Nigeria&&num;8217&semi;s national power generation dropped to 3&comma;059 MW and for the subsequent seven days remained below 4&comma;000 MW&comma; six percent below average production&period; Low pressure on the Escravos-Lagos Pipeline System &lpar;ELPS&rpar; left several gas turbine power plants with insufficient gas supply&comma; leading to plant shutdowns and widespread power blackouts&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Unlike gas turbine power plants&comma; gas engine power plants have the flexibility to function during low gas pressure events&period; This flexibility significantly lowers power production risk&comma; a supreme advantage in context of gas supply disruptions and systemic power shortages&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Power cuts in Nigeria are a regular occurrence&period; Data from the Transmission Company of Nigeria &lpar;TCN&rpar; shows that from 2013 to 2020&comma; the national grid system failed 84 times and partially collapsed 43 times&period; The World Bank data on countries with the most electricity outages in Africa showed that in 2019&comma; Nigeria suffered outages for 191 days out of 365&period; The economic cost of power shortages in the country is estimated at around &dollar;28 billion annually – equivalent to two percent of its Gross Domestic Product&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Power plants suffer from disrupted gas supply<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Gas is used to fuel more than 80&percnt; of power generation capacity&comma; in Nigeria that has the largest gas reserves in Africa&period; Despite major progress achieved over the past years&comma; gas infrastructures development and maintenance remain insufficient&comma; and this situation combined with infrastructure sabotage results in the country suffering from insufficient pipeline capacity and a lack of pipeline connections&period; The condition of the gas transmission and distribution system is a major constraint as domestic supply shortages and insufficient pressure severely affect the reliability of the power supply&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>What does this mean in practice&quest;<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Trunk pipelines like the ELPS require sufficient volumes of natural gas to be fed into the system within a specified pressure range to ensure that gas is delivered to all consumers along the pipeline as per the contracted quality and quantity&period; A drop in the volumes leads to a drop in the pressure leading to disruptions between the ELPS and end consumers&period; In such a scenario&comma; high pressure off-takers such as gas turbine power plants can no longer operate and drop out as consumers&comma; thus freeing up the remaining gas volumes for low pressure off-takers such as reciprocating gas engine power plants which can continue to operate at full rated capacity&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Workable solutions adapted to fluctuating fuel supply and load<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The flexible power plants&comma; made up of multiple engine modules which can be turned-down or fired-up instantaneously&comma; offer a large range in power supply availability&period; In addition to being robust and versatile to manage the current generation and transmission side disturbances&comma; they are also the perfect ally of renewable energies since they can adjust output in response to the intermittent nature of the weather&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Engine-based technologies also provide the best response times to effectively adapt to sudden excess or shortfall in electricity production&period; Furthermore&comma; their modular format means that they can be sized to meet specific requirements&comma; for a city&comma; for manufacturing industries&comma; or for local micro-grids&period; This makes them easier and faster to install than larger gas turbine plants and facilitates expansion as energy requirements increase&period; <&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>Gas turbine power plants on the other hand involve a continuous combustion process&period; They require a constant energy supply to generate consistent output&period; They are not adapted to operate on a stop-start basis&comma; nor are they designed to cope with the intermittent nature of renewables&period; To maintain a balanced system&comma; flexible forms of electricity must be available to ramp up output at the same rate that wind or solar output fluctuates&period; Using small&comma; modular&comma; combustion engines to provide load flexibility enables larger combined cycle plants to provide a stable base load taking advantage of high efficiencies when operating at full capacity and reducing overall energy costs&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><strong>Unlocking the full potential of Nigeria&&num;8217&semi;s power sector<&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>The reality today is that <a href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;punchng&period;com&sol;">Nigeria&&num;8217&semi;s power system<&sol;a> faces several challenges&comma; including blackouts&comma; fuel shortages&comma; financing&comma; maintenance&comma; demanding operating conditions and reduced cooling water availability&period; The size of the gap between the country&&num;8217&semi;s energy needs and its current provision is daunting but not impossible to close&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>As the largest economy in Africa&comma; with huge gas reserves and high solar energy potential&comma; Nigeria has all the natural resources necessary to meet the country&&num;8217&semi;s power needs&period; To realise the full benefits of this potential&comma; flexible engine technology offers a superior solution over gas turbine technology&period; Increasing access to electricity ranks as one of the major drivers for business growth&period; Improving power sector performance&comma; particularly for manufacturing and services&comma; will be central to unlocking Nigeria&&num;8217&semi;s economic growth post COVID-19&period;<&sol;em><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>&nbsp&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;