ZEGPOWER Generators to Re-define Distributed Power generation
The discovery of electricity on a practical scale by Michael Faraday in the 18th century marked the birth of industrialization at a rate, man had never thought of and this also brought about rapid economic growth in most European and other Western countries. Electricity is generated when there is an interaction between a current carrying conductor and a magnetic field, this interaction is normally made possible by the use of a prime mover which is usually a water turbine as the case with hydropower stations, gas turbine as the case with Gas powered thermal stations, steam turbines as the case with coal power stations and Nuclear power stations, and Diesel engine as the case with Diesel powered electricity generation systems. On a global scale, as at 2004, 45% of Energy generated came from coal powered stations, 9% from Gas powered thermal stations, 17.2% from nuclear powered stations, 18% from hydro power stations, 7.2% from Diesel powered generation systems, 0.7% from biomass power stations, 0.4% from waste power stations, 0.3% from geothermal power station, 0.002% from solar energy, and 0.26% from other sources.
In the African continent, out of the total energy generated in the year 2004, about 44% came from coal powered stations, 20% from gas powered thermal stations, 1.3% from nuclear powered stations, 15.0% from hydropower stations, 20% from Diesel powered generation systems, 0.015% from biomass power stations, 0% from waste power stations, 0.1% from geothermal power stations, 0% from solar energy and 0.04% from other sources.
The fact that industrial and commercial activities can only thrive when there is adequate supply of power clearly tells us that one cannot do without the other. This is clearly evident in countries with very vibrant industrial and commercial sectors. There is also a very strong link between economic growth and a country’s energy generation capacity. In almost the whole of Western Europe countries, the total net electricity consumption from 1980 to 2004 stood at 55,620 Billion kilowatt hours, while in the entire African continent the total net electricity consumption from 1980 to 2004 stood at 7,565 Billion Kilowatt hours.
Within the African continent the total net Electricity consumption of South Africa, from 1980 to 2004 stood at 3,500 Billion kilowatt hours, that of Nigeria within the same period stood at 280 Billion kilowatt hours, that of Egypt within the same period stood at 1,015 Billion kilowatt hours, while that of Libya within the same period stood at 330 Billion kilowatt hours. The average electricity generation per capita of Nigeria within same period stood at 0.12Mwh/capita,while that of most developing countries stood at 1.3Mwh/capita, this represents almost a 1000 percent difference. It is very clear that power generated in Nigeria from NEPA over the last two decades has been grossly inadequate to sustain a steady progress of a vibrant industrial and commercial sector, even with an anticipated 91% rise in energy demand, over next couple of years, government seems to be paying only lip service to the challenges of meeting this surge in energy demand. This will obviously not augur well with government’s policy on a private sector led economy.
A long list of private companies in the manufacturing and commercial sector had to close shop just in the recent past as a result of an ever increasing energy costs because of 100% dependency on diesel powered energy generation systems, with the recent policy of downstream sector deregulation and the increasing price of crude oil in the international market, energy costs are bound to continue its skyward climb. A situation where most private companies spend 20–25% of their periodic budgets on generating power from diesel powered generators, obviously sends wrong signals to would–be foreign investors and even a greater source of worry to small and medium scale industrialist. Unfortunately this scenario will last much longer, because the current power generation capacity of NEPA lags far behind our current energy demands nationwide. Government seems not to realize or simply feels it can be ignored or how else would one regard a government, through the ministry of power, that tells us that a country of 120 million people has a peak power demand of 4000Mw, as at 2004. (South Africa’s peak power demand as at 2004 was about 45,000 Mw, with 71% constituting of Industrial and commercial consumption. South Africa has a population of about 35 million people).
Unfortunately governments’ response to this looming catastrophe is not proactive in nature and little has been done terms of increasing the power generation capacity of NEPA, in spite of the Billions of Naira that has been sunk into the corporation for almost two decades how. At this point in time, active, private sector participation and initiative has become inevitable towards the provision of electrical energy that will be sustainable and also very cost effective, in order to move this country forward.
In an effort to achieve this objective, Zero emissions energy generation systems should be explored because they provide electrical energy that is very cost- effective, reliable, sustainable and eco-friendly. When it comes to the already known alternatives, the reality is that failing some scientific or technological breakthrough in the very near future, the already known alternatives like solar energy systems, wind energy systems, biofuel energy systems etc. cannot be brought into play, in the short to medium term, on a scale necessary to meet up with the current energy demands of this country and certainly not at competitive costs. For example with a 30–fold increase in the use of the known alternatives e.g. solar energy systems, over the next two decades, the known alternatives would still account for less than two percent (2%) of our national energy consumption projected for 2025. Considering the obvious problems associated with the known alternatives and the fact that about 70% of present and would-be consumers constitutes mainly of industrial and commercial consumers. Competitive energy costs will ever remain a much desired option. The long awaited good news is that zero emission energy generation systems are now making the much needed transition between research and real application in the power generation industry. The main cutting edge advantage of the zero emissions energy generation system lies in its ability to provide electrical power at very competitive costs and this translates to drastically reduced energy costs on the consumers or users. Zero emissions energy generation systems, sure marks the beginning of sustainable private and modular independent power plants, eliminating the need for expansive transmission and distribution networks.
As Published in the BusinessDay Newspaper of 8th March-2005 Written by John O. UkairoZegpowergen (talk) 02:00, 19 April 2014 (UTC)