Energy Supply Crisis in Nigeria
Electricity is pivotal to the development of nations. Its use is directly correlated with healthy economic growth (Kaseke & Hosking, 2013). Nigeria is one of the most populated countries in Africa but only about 40% of the people are connected to the energy grid. The people who actually have power experience difficulties around 60% of the time (Aliy, Ramli & Saleh, 2013). The pink lines on the map show the routes the power grid takes and explains why much of Nigeria does not have access to electricity (Global Energy Network Institute, 2014).
Contents
Aliyu, Ramli and Saleh, (2013) claim that these blackouts cripple the industrial sector. For example, outages in this area of the world also have implications for the mining industry. When power fails, workers may be trapped in the mines, so as soon as there is a risk of failure the operations are such down, which leads to economic difficulties (Kaseke & Hosking, 2013). Lack of electricity also causes problems for agriculture. Most irrigation lines are run by electricity, so when the power is cut out then the crop yield decreases, (Kaseke & Hosking, 2013). Nigeria’s energy grid is arguably in crisis due to lack of development. The key to making a more reliable energy sector is to find and use a renewable energy resources, rather than simply relying on the country’s non-renewable resources. The crisis of energy is a complex problem stemming from a variety of issues. This paper will cover role of the government in the electricity problem, the environmental impacts of the current system, the effect on the people who live in Nigeria and the potential solutions to the crisis.
Background
There are approximately 162 million people living in Nigeria. Of these people about 70% them are living below the poverty line of one dollar a day (Ejiogu, 2013). This makes the population at higher risk of having a larger environmental impact on their surroundings because they need the supplies (Middleton, 2013). The people in Nigeria near the oil and natural gas reserves often vandalize or steal oil because they feel like they should have a share in the oil that is coming from their area of the country (US Energy Administration, 2013). In Nigeria the shortfall of electricity leads to the overuse of generators for energy. It is estimated that about 30% of energy is produced in this manner (US Energy Administration, 2013). Currently the only plan the government has in place to help solve the energy crisis is to expand the fossil fuel burning sector (US Energy Administration, 2013). Nigeria has a reputation of having one of the most corrupt governments in the world (Ejiogu, 2012). It is rich in natural resources, which should and does create billions of dollars of revenue, the production of the oil is not shared with the rest of the country. About 70% of people in Nigeria live below the poverty line and the unemployment rate is 21% (Ejiogu, 2012). Alternative forms of energy are not used probably because of availability of oil in Nigeria, as it has the world’s seventh largest oil reserves (Ejiogu, 2012).
Current State of Energy
Energy production in Nigeria: (Percentages taken from Aliyu, Ramli & Saleh, 2013)
Currently Nigeria uses four different types of energy: natural gas, oil, hydro and coal (Aliyu, Ramli & Saleh, 2013). The energy sector is heavily dependent on petroleum as a method for electricity production which has slowed down the development of alternative forms of energy (Aliyu, Ramli & Saleh, 2013). Three out of the four above resources used for energy production in Nigeria are linked with increasing greenhouse gas emissions: coal, oil and natural gas, with coal emitting the worst of the three (Middleton 2013). See above table for summary of the environmental impacts of the sources of electricity.
According to the World Commission on Environment and Development (WCED) the importance of sustainability in energy is: the ability to preserve its use, the importance of energy in living standards and for economic development and the significant impacts that energy systems and processes have had and continue to have on the environment (WCED, 1987). Nigeria needs to invest in sustainable resources because of the obvious signs that it will be strongly impacted by environmental change such as: desertification, droughts, flooding, and water shortages. The biggest blow to Nigeria would be the low-lying areas that contain many of their natural resources being flooded if ocean levels rise as predicted (Gujba, Mulugetta & Azapagic, 2011). Since further development of hydro-electricity does not seem practical because of the dependence on the seasons for amount of water supply (Ajayi, 2009). Wind energy has potential, but is unreliable for consistent energy supply. Nuclear energy could be a viable solution to the energy problem because of its lack of emissions and reliability. Nigeria also has easy access to the uranium needed for the plants (Ejiogu, 2013).
Policy
Current policy is aimed at reducing carbon emission, which is why nuclear energy is appealing in Nigeria (Aliyu, Ramli & Saleh, 2013). The policy also discourages use of wood fuel as a method of energy production, which is beneficial because it reduces the deforestation and carbon emissions from burning the trees (Aliyu, Ramli & Saleh, 2013). Nigeria currently does not have any policies concerning emission reduction (Gujba, Mulugetta & Azapagic, 2011).
Overall Grade for ability to mitigate environmental impact from the energy sector: Nigeria has a poor outlook on climate change and this reflects heavily in their policies surrounding climate change. Nigeria has not developed policies surrounding environmental change. What they have created has done so little for the environment as to be close to meaningless (Gujba, Mulugetta & Azapagic, 2011). Their overall lack of control over the oil industry and allowing for the vadalizm and theft of oil leading to oil spills along with the poor maintenance of the pipelines also describes a nation that is not conscious of environmental change (US Energy Administration, 2013). Lastly Nigeria has also done proposals to further develop their non-renewable resources as sources for electricity production instead of reducing it (US Energy Administration, 2013). They seem to not care that they are at high risk of being effected by environmental change and are simply going for the cheapest alternative- coal, instead of developing new renewable sources of energy (Gujba, Mulugetta & Azapagic, 2011). In light of all of these factors I would give Nigeria a grade of “F” (failure) for their ability to deal with their energy crisis and decrease their carbon emissions.
Environmental Solutions
In light of all this, there is a lot of literature surrounding different proposals of what might be done to help Nigeria develop their potential for renewable electricity. Development of the renewable sources energy is important for the future of world. Nigeria has been in an energy crisis for a decade despite numerous attempts to reform the energy sector (Ejiogu, 2012). The only thing that remains is to figure out which energy source is most practical for Nigeria. Development of hydro-electricity does not seem practical because of the dependence on the seasons for amount of water supply (Ajayi, 2009) as well as the amount of greenhouse gases it emits in the first 10 years of being built (Middleton, 2013). Wind energy has potential, but is unreliable for consistent energy supply.
Two fields of arguments:
The most practical solution was mentioned by Gujba, Mulugetta and Azapagic, (2011). The authors of this article suggested that a harmonization of different forms of energy take place. In their sustainable development scenario they suggested some reliance on renewable energy sources and a slow change from fossil fuels to the renewable energy sources. Since the rural areas are further from the electricity grid and most currently do not have power, each area would become a little hub where they would produce their own power by whatever resource was closest. For example, in the northern areas the mini-grids would work off of wind and solar power energy. Hydropower development would have to increase in order for this to be successful. Winkler, Howells and Baumert (2002) talk about envisioning where a country wants to end up before the development of energy resources. This is a great perspective about how to fix the energy crisis because taking the big picture into account before the development of the sector could include things outside of simply fixing the energy crisis such as: poverty eradication, job creation, reducing carbon emissions etc. Fixing the energy supply will solve many problems such as the over pricing of electricity due to the loss of the electricity within the grid (Winkler, Howells & Baumert, 2002)
Conclusions
In this paper we have discussed a large variety of different issues with the Nigerian energy supply. The corrupt government has led to poor management of the overall system (Ejiogu, 2012). The large amount of natural resources has led Nigeria to try to develop the cheapest, but not most environmentally friendly resources (Ejiogu, 2012). The policies in Nigeria also do not encourage the use of cleaner forms of energy (Gujba, Mulugetta & Azapagic, 2011). While all of these are happening the people are also in poverty leading to worsening impacts on the environment (Middleton, 2013, US Energy Administration, 2013). All of this bad news leads to a sense of hopelessness over the condition of the electricity grid in Nigeria.
There is hope, though. Nigeria has not developed its energy sector yet, and with the proper policies in place before development it could reduce its emissions while tackling the social problems of employment (Winkler, Howells & Baumert, 2002). It has a lot of potential for clean energy sources all that is needed is a good plan of implementation (Gujba, Mulugetta & Azapagic, 2011). In the end Nigeria needs to think about its own place in climate change. As a high-risk country that will be effected by the changes of desertification, droughts, flooding, and water shortages (Gujba, Mulugetta & Azapagic, 2011). This country needs to do all it can to mitigate the change in the future.