By Chiemelie Eze, Antalya, Türkiye
The World Energy Council (WEC) Nigeria is in search of strategic partnerships with worldwide power organisations to broaden electrical energy entry, strengthen technical capability and promote the productive use of power throughout the nation.
The Council’s Chief Insight Officer, Gabriel Aduda, disclosed this in an interview on the sidelines of the continued COP31 local weather convention in Antalya, Türkiye. He highlighted the Council’s engagements with the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), the International Energy Agency (IEA), OPEC and Green Protocol amongst others.
Aduda mentioned the engagements had been geared toward establishing partnerships that will translate into tangible initiatives and contribute to the event of Nigeria’s power sector.
He disclosed that the Council was working in the direction of signing a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Green Protocol to promote and implement power sustainability initiatives.
“We met with Green Protocol, who are hugely into energy sustainability. And we’re signing a memorandum of understanding between Green Protocol and World Energy Council, Nigeria. And we’re going to be driving projects in that area,” he mentioned.
He added that WEC Nigeria was planning to convene stakeholders throughout the nation’s power ecosystem, bringing collectively policymakers, producers, customers and companies to strengthen coordination between coverage formulation and implementation.
“We’re going to be convening the entire energy ecosystem around Nigeria where we bring policymakers together with consumers, producers, and businesses around energy. To see how we can more effectively align policies with deliverables, because oftentimes that gap is where we have problems,” he mentioned.
On its engagement with IRENA, Aduda mentioned the Council was exploring a framework for nearer collaboration with the company, noting that the Energy Commission of Nigeria, IRENA’s focal establishment within the nation, can be represented on the Council’s board.
He expressed concern that Nigeria had but to absolutely leverage the alternatives provided by IRENA, regardless of the company’s almost 20 years of existence.
“We have a very good footing to be able to work very closely with IRENA to see that we begin to deliver projects in Nigeria, following their almost two decades of existence. And we’re yet to show something. But now we’re coming up with something tangible to be able to pursue,” he mentioned.
Aduda mentioned discussions with the IEA had been additionally centered on potential areas of collaboration, notably entry to power information, know-how and technical experience. He added that the Council was equally participating OPEC on alternatives for cooperation.
Nigeria’s Energy Transition and the Role of Fossil Fuels.
On Nigeria’s power transition, Aduda maintained that the nation shouldn’t abandon its fossil gas assets however ought to as a substitute prioritise extra environmentally accountable strategies of exploration and utilisation.
“At the end of the day, we are still advocates for fossil fuels.… We cannot run away from the minerals or the resources we have, to go chasing after what we do not know yet. But one thing we owe the world is to improve the responsibility with which we engage and explore fossil fuels,” he mentioned.
He advocated elevated analysis into cleaner oil and fuel extraction applied sciences and important reductions in greenhouse fuel emissions, stressing the necessity to stability useful resource growth with environmental duty.
“I’m a very strong advocate in the fact that there is need for more research in oil and gas. How do we make extraction cleaner? And that is also part of the discussion we have put on the table here, because we totally refuse the phasing out of fossil fuels. But rather, let us do it more responsibly,” he added.
Solar Energy and the Need to Rethink Electricity Access
Aduda recognized the rising adoption of photo voltaic power as a major growth in Nigeria’s efforts to broaden electrical energy entry, notably in rural communities and amongst low earnings households.
He famous that the nation had but to adequately doc the size of photo voltaic penetration, regardless of the growing variety of households and communities counting on photo voltaic panels, batteries and inverters to meet their primary electrical energy wants.
“Practically every rural community, every urban poor today, practically everybody has a solar panel above their roof. People have light, people are able to do the basics,” he mentioned.
However, he cautioned that such decentralised and captive energy preparations had been inadequate to help giant scale manufacturing and manufacturing, underscoring the necessity to distinguish between primary electrical energy entry and the supply of power to drive financial growth.
“Now, is that enough? No. Because captive power can hardly give us enough force to be able to enter into production, into manufacturing, into all that, which we also need to pay attention to,” he mentioned.
He expressed optimism that WEC Nigeria’s Nigerian Energy Outlook 2027 would supply extra complete and dependable info on the nation’s electrical energy entry ranges.
Grid Modernisation and State Electricity Markets
On the challenges confronting the power sector, Aduda recognized outdated transmission infrastructure as a serious constraint to dependable electrical energy provide, calling for the modernisation of the nationwide grid.
He additionally welcomed the Electricity Act 2023, which gives a framework for states to generate, transmit and distribute electrical energy inside their jurisdictions, noting that shut to 20 states had taken steps to harness the alternatives created by the laws.
“We’ve seen that close to 20 states have taken the bull by the horn. Two or three of them are doing extremely well and improving access to their people. We expect that the others will also join them and do the same thing,” he mentioned.
Aduda additional famous that non-public funding in photo voltaic power was enabling households and companies to scale back their dependence on the nationwide grid.
“I know places in Abuja, in Lagos today that 100 per cent are solar dependent. And I also make boast to tell you that so many homes in Nigeria today are solar dependent. They don’t even depend on traditional power anymore,” he mentioned.
Nevertheless, he pressured that enhancements in electrical energy entry have to be supported by credible and complete information to precisely measure progress, notably in rural communities.
“Our focus is to come to a time where every single Nigerian has access to light, no matter how little. And not only that, how do we improve their productivity as humans simply because they have improved access to light?” he mentioned.
Energy Access as a Driver of Food Security
Aduda additionally highlighted the vital hyperlink between power entry and meals safety, drawing consideration to the excessive ranges of submit harvest losses within the Benue Trough, considered one of Nigeria’s main agricultural manufacturing areas.
He disclosed that the Council had mentioned the problem with the Chairman of the North Central Development Commission, proposing the institution of other power powered agricultural hubs and chilly storage amenities to assist farmers protect perishable produce.
“The entire Benue Trough is a very rich and productive region, especially perishable agricultural goods. But over 78 per cent of that is wasted every day, every year, annually,” he mentioned.
He defined that the proposed amenities would allow farmers to mixture their produce at designated hubs, the place it could possibly be saved in chilly rooms earlier than being transported to markets, thereby decreasing submit harvest losses and bettering farmers’ incomes.
“All we need is to be able to build alternative energy powered agricultural hubs, cold rooms, so that farmers can gather in clusters, bring their products to these cold rooms, and then we store it for them. From there, we take them to the market,” he mentioned.
According to Aduda, dependable power entry might additionally enhance healthcare supply, notably by making certain that main healthcare centres have electrical energy to energy fridges for the storage of vaccines and important medicines.
“This is how energy can help us to improve agriculture, can help us to improve transportation, can help us to improve education, can help us to improve every area of our livelihood, including health,” he mentioned.
Improving the Safety of Solar Installations
On considerations over hearth incidents involving photo voltaic installations, Aduda mentioned the power neighborhood was inspecting the elements and technical specs of photo voltaic methods to determine potential causes and safer options.
He acknowledged that some incidents had occurred, stressing the significance of steady analysis, innovation and technological enhancements to minimise related dangers.
“We are beginning to look at the sources and then the makeup. What are the chemical components? What are the technicalities of building those?” he mentioned.
He added that the target was to determine elements that would contribute to hearth incidents and discover various applied sciences and supplies that will enhance the protection and reliability of photo voltaic installations.
Aduda reiterated that WEC Nigeria’s broader goal was to make sure that electrical energy entry went past offering primary lighting to households and translated into elevated productiveness, expanded financial alternatives and improved residing requirements for Nigerians.
