Localised energy systems in Nigerian power network

Nigerian Power Systems has changed from vertically integrated government-owned electricity network to a largely privately-owned electricity network. Despite this transformation, the utility is still struggling to overcome challenges of providing reliable electricity supply to all its citizens, heavy dependence on fuel and meeting greenhouse gas emission target. The increase in power demand due to growing population and industrialization in the face of depleting fossil fuel resources and low government investment on power generation has stimulated the country's efforts in adopting power generation from renewable energy sources. The use of local energy systems is considered suitable to meet its ever increasing power demand. The local energy systems, defined in this research as medium sized electricity projects (between 5-50MWe) such as solar arrays and wind turbines could bring considerable benefits to local communities in terms of power security, environment friendly and economies. This paper investigates the impact of growing electricity demand on a 33kV distribution network in Nigeria and the benefits of connecting local energy systems to the networks to meet the increasing power demand with regards to network voltage and power losses.