CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background of the Study
Energy plays the most vital role in the economic growth, progress, and development, as well as poverty eradication and security of any nation. Uninterrupted energy supply is a vital issue for all countries today. Future economic growth crucially depends on the long-term availability of energy from sources that are affordable, accessible, and environmentally friendly. Other aspects of human’s life like security, climate change, and public health are closely interrelated with energy. Energy is an important factor in all the sectors of any country’s economy. The recent world’s energy crisis is due to two reasons: the rapid population growth and the increase in the living standard of whole societies [1].
Energy supports the provision of basic needs such as cooked food, a comfortable living temperature, lighting, the use of appliances, piped water or sewerage, essential health care (refrigerated vaccines, emergency, and intensive care), educational aids, communication (radio, television, electronic mail, the World Wide Web), and transport. Energy also fuels productive activities including agriculture, commerce, manufacturing, industry, and mining. It can also be said that lack of access to energy contributes to poverty and deprivation and can contribute to the economic decline. Energy and poverty reduction are not only closely connected with each other, but also with the socio-economic development which involves productivity, income growth, education and health.
Energy Situation in Nigeria
Nigeria is Africa’s energy giant. It is the continent’s most prolific oil-producing country, which, along with Libya, accounts for two-thirds of Africa’s crude oil reserves. It ranks second to Algeria in natural gas. Most of Africa’s bitumen and lignite reserves are found in Nigeria. In its mix of conventional energy reserves, Nigeria is simply unmatched by any other country on the African continent. It is not surprising therefore that energy export is the mainstay of the Nigerian economy. Also, primary energy resources dominate the nation’s industrial raw material endowment. Several energy resources are available in Nigeria in abundant proportions. The country possesses the world’s sixth largest reserve of crude oil. Nigeria has an estimated oil reserve of 36.2 billion barrels. It is increasingly an important gas province with proven reserves of nearly 5,000 billion barrels [2]. The oil and gas reserves are mainly found and located along the Niger Delta, Gulf of Guinea, and Bight of Bonny. Most of the exploration activities are focused in deep and ultra-deep offshore areas with planned activities in the Chad basin, in the northeast. Coal and lignite reserves are estimated to be 2.7 billion tons, while tar sand reserves represent 31 billion barrels of oil equivalent. The identified hydroelectricity sites have an estimated capacity of about 14,250 MW. Nigeria has significant biomass resources to meet both traditional and modern energy uses, including electricity generation. There has been a supply and demand gap as a result of the inadequate development and inefficient management of the energy sector. The supply of electricity, the country’s most used energy resource, has been erratic. The electricity system in Nigeria centers on PHCN, which accounts for about 98% of the total electricity generation [3]. Power generation by other agencies such as the Nigerian Electricity Supply Company relies on thermal power for electricity generation unlike PHCN, which relies on both hydro and thermal power generation. However, electricity generation is also a consumer of fuel and energy such as fuel oil, natural gas, and diesel oil. The importance of these sources of energy and fuel for generating electricity has been decreasing in recent years. However, hydropower that is relatively cheaper than these sources has grown to be more important than other sources [2]. However, more recently, the Power Authority has generated electricity through a mix of both thermal and hydro systems. All the power, distribution, and substations are specially interlinked by a transmission network popularly known as the national grid. The entire electricity generated nationwide is coordinated at the National Control Centre, Oshogbo, from where electricity is distributed to all parts of Nigeria.
Energy Consumption Pattern in Nigeria
Energy consumption patterns in the world today shows that Nigeria and indeed African countries have the lowest rates of consumption. Nevertheless, Nigeria suffers from an inadequate supply of usable energy due to the rapidly increasing demand, which is typical of a developing economy. Paradoxically, the country is potentially endowed with sustainable energy resources. Nigeria is rich in conventional energy resources which include oil, national gas, lignite, and coal. It is also well endowed with renewable energy sources such as wood, solar, hydropower, and wind. The patterns of energy usage in Nigeria’s economy can be divided into industrial, commercial, agricultural, and household sectors [3]. The household sector accounts for the largest share of energy usage in the country which is about 65% of the total energy in supply. This is quite large due to the low level of development in the other sectors of the economy. The major energy-consuming activities in Nigeria’s households are cooking, lighting, and use of electrical appliances. Cooking accounts for a staggering 49% of household energy consumption, lighting uses up to 43%, and the remaining 8% can be attributed to the use of basic electrical appliances such as televisions, radios, sound systems, computers etc. [3].
Energy crisis in Nigeria
Energy crisis which has engulfed Nigeria for almost two decades has been enormous and has largely contributed to the incidence of poverty by paralyzing industrial and commercial activities during this period. Nigeria’s energy need is on the increase, and its increasing population is not adequately considered in the energy development program. The present urban-centered energy policy is deplorable, as cases of rural and sub-rural energy demand and supply do not reach the center stage of the country’s energy development policy. People in rural areas depend on burning wood and traditional biomass for their energy needs, causing great deforestation, emitting greenhouse gases, and polluting the environment, thus creating global warming and environmental concerns. The main task has been to supply energy to the cities and various places of industrialization, thereby creating an energy imbalance within the country’s socio-economic and political landscapes. Comparing the present and ever increasing population with the total capacity of the available power stations reveals that Nigeria is not able to meet the energy needs of the people. The rural dwellers still lack electric power.
The second dimension of Nigeria’s energy crises is exemplified by such indicators as electricity blackouts, brownouts, and pervasive reliance on self-generated electricity. This development has occurred despite abundant energy resources in Nigeria. The electricity market, dominated on the supply side by the state-owned PHCN, formerly called NEPA, has been incapable of providing minimum acceptable international standards of electricity service reliability, accessibility, and availability for the past three decades.
Energy and the Importance of Energy Efficiency and Conservation in Nigeria
About two-thirds of the fuel energy used in a thermal power plant is lost in generating electricity. About 9 percent of the generated electricity is lost during transmission and distribution of the electricity. So the other amount of electricity entering a building or facility represents only 30 percent or less of the original fuel energy. Large energy savings are thus associated with standards for residential electronics products followed by higher efficiency standards for commercial refrigeration, lighting and air conditioning. The next largest savings in the residential sectors could come from higher standards for electric water heaters and lighting.
Improving energy efficiency across all sectors of the economy is an important national objective because of achieving a savings potential through energy efficiency could increase national energy security [7]. Greater energy efficiency would reduce the need for fossil fuels, which hasbeen the mainstay of Nigeria energy supply, and would thereby enhance not only environmental quality but also national security.
Moreover, energy efficient and cost effective technologies are available today to supply services (such as lighting, heating, cooling, refrigeration, transport, industrial motor drive, and computing) that are integral to modern life and that constitute the underlying drivers of the demand for energy. Hundreds of technologies, some already available commercially and others just beginning to enter the market, can provide these services more efficiently than is the case today, and they can collectively save large amounts of energy.
Nevertheless, achieving greater energy efficiency in the country will take considerable time and effort because, among other impediments, long lived infrastructure, plants, and equipment such as buildings, automobile assembly lines, and industrial and residential boilers will have to be replaced or retrofitted.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
In power distribution systems, there is great increase of power consumption in the University of Nigeria Nsukka (Campus)and in our country Nigeria at large. This calls for a means of reducing the power consumption with modern technologies thereby reducing the monthly electricity bill from the power holding company of Nigeria. In the course of this research work energy saving technology has be chosen as a better option of reducing the power consumption and costs associated with the energy usage and consumption in UNN campus. Finally, this work aims at providing an automated load consumption reduction scheme to address some of these challenges using University of Nigeria, Nsukka as a case study.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The aim of this project is to evaluate how energy saving devices and technology can be applied as a tool for energy conservation.
The objectives of the project are as follows:
- Review energy saving devices and technology.
- Evaluate existing energy consumption of the UNN community and the cost.
- Evaluate energy consumption of the UNN community replaced with energy saving devices and technology and the cost.
- Determination of the amount of energy saved and the cost during the period considered.
1.4 Scope of the Study
This research work on power consumption reduction makes use of PHCN supply only. Energy saving technology is an interesting field of study, owing to the fact that Energy is very important in all areas of life, which includes hospitals, homes, schools, industries, banks and offices and so on. Consequently, the approach makes use of surveying method by collecting data’s from the UNN community. The research work explains the consumption by the cooling, heating, electronic and lighting loads collected and afterwards replacing them with energy saving technology. Therefore comparing the two results and getting the total utilized energy in both cases. The programs used for the data analysis include Microsoft Excel and MATLAB7.5 software. Microsoft was used to draw some bar charts as well.
1.5 Significance of the Study
This research work on the impact of energy saving technology is occasioned on the need to use energy saving devices in offices, schools, and home appliances. This research work is based on facts that the wattage values of devices were taken within a large geographical area and the results calculated with respect to the load capacity in the University of Nigeria,Nsukka Campus.
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