POWER July 2015 - 8

Nigeria Has Gas Capacity,
Gas Supply, but Little Gas
Power
Nigeria brought 1.5 GW of natural gas-
fired generation from three brand new
power plants online in May, adding muchneeded
capacity to the grid. But because
the West African country that is Africa's
biggest economy doesn't have the means
of transporting its abundant gas resources
to its power plants, its crippling power
shortages are expected to persist.
Before the March-elected military ruler
Muhammadu Buhari assumed the presidency
at the end of May, outgoing President
Goodluck Jonathan inaugurated-with
much fanfare-three new gas-fired power
plants: the 450-MW Ihovbor project, the
450-MW Sapele II project, and the 560MW
Calabar project (Figure 1). Those facilities
are three of 10 projects fast-tracked
by the National Integrated Power Projects
(NIPPs) framework. The government also
announced that three other NIPP plants,
252-MW Gbarain, 378-MW Egbema, and
252-MW Omoku, have reached advanced
stages of completion and should soon
contribute 880 MW more to Nigeria's installed
capacity.
Yet as Abuja celebrated the achievements,
Federal Minister of Power Godknows
Igali told Nigeria's Punch newspaper that
a spate of gas pipeline vandalism prior to
the April 2015 elections had starved much
of the country's power plants of fuel needed
to run their turbines. And in the weeks
that followed, the Nigerian Electricity
Regulatory Commission (NERC) admitted
that only five of the country's 23 power
plants were functional. Making matters
worse were a water management issue at
a hydro plant and a strike by petroleum
and gas workers. By the end of May, the
country's power supply had dwindled to
an all-time low of 1,327 MW of available
capacity, out of a 4.8 GW total installed
capacity for a country of about 170 million
people, NERC said.
Proposed investments to expand the gas
pipeline network in Nigeria have kicked
up in the last few months. In April, Aliko
Dangote, Africa's richest man, revealed
plans to quadruple gas supply with a $2.5
billion investment in pipelines running
from the Niger River Delta to Lagos, the
country's biggest city.
Nigeria sought to tackle its power crisis
by completing a major reform process
in 2013. An integral part of its long-term
efforts to reduce routine blackouts was
investing heavily in power infrastructure,
having conceived the NIPP in 2004 as an
initiative to add new generation capacity.
All 10 NIPP power plants are gas-fired:
Eight are simple cycle gas turbine plants,
while the other two are combined cycle.
1. New and noteworthy. Nigeria in May inaugurated Calabar Generation Co.'s 560-MW
Calabar Power Plant near Calabar City in Cross River state. The plant is a simple cycle gas turbine
plant built to accommodate conversion to combined cycle gas turbine configuration in the
future. Courtesy: NIPP Transaction
But critics of the privatization effort
have underscored the current supply
shortage as they urge President Buhari to
scrap power sector reform altogether.
Beyond privatization, Nigeria is looking
to diversify its power mix. A renewable
energy policy approved earlier in
May by the federal executive council calls
for the installation of more hydro, solar,
and wind energy. Igali noted that the
country was gearing up to inaugurate the
10-MW Katsina wind farm as a prototype,
just " to show that wind energy is possible
in Nigeria. "
-Sonal Patel, associate editor
Report: World Is Seeing an
Upsurge of Hydropower
Development
The global hydropower sector has seen an
upsurge in development activity lately,
with installed capacity growing by 27%
since 2004 (Figure 2), a new report from
the World Energy Council (WEC) suggests.
In 2013, hydropower made up 16.4% of
global power supply, reaching 1,000 GW
of total installed capacity, with 40 GW
installed that year alone. However, an estimated
10,000 TWh/year of undeveloped
potential remains for new development,
according to the report, " Charting the Upsurge
in Hydropower Development. "
Hydropower's growth is pegged on its
low-cost electricity supply. An important
new driver for global development concerns
its role as a flexible generation asset
as well as an energy storage technology,
says the report. Infrastructure for hydropower
projects is also used for freshwater
management, and projects with reservoir
storage generally provide a variety of value-added
uses. " Given the major investment
required for hydropower, and the
potential impact on local environments,
politicians and the general public may be
more inclined to support projects that offer
multiple benefits beyond electricity, "
it says.
In recent years, development has been
concentrated in Asia, Latin America, and
Africa. China has lately emerged as the
world's leader in installed hydropower
capacity, with a 26% share in 2013, far
more than Brazil's 8.6%, 7.8% for the
U.S., and 7.6% for Canada. China is expected
to extend its lead with the massive
new developments that are already
operational or will come online this year,
8
www.powermag.com
POWER | July 2015

http://www.powermag.com

POWER July 2015

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of POWER July 2015