NSUKKA : Prof. Emenike Ejiogu, dean of UNN’s College of Engineering, proposed on Thursday that the gasification plant can inject 7,000 MW of electricity into Nigeria’s 774 local government areas.
In addition, Prof. Ejiogu, who is also the Director of the Africa Centre of Excellence for Sustainable Power and Energy Development (ACE-SPED), stated that the conventional national grid has proven to be insufficient in meeting the country’s energy needs and that Nigeria must adopt an energy mix to prevent an energy crisis from paralysing the economy.
He delivered the 190th Inaugural Lecture at UNN’s Princess Alexandra Auditorium, where he discussed how the country’s 774 local government areas can share in the benefits of distributed energy generation to the tune of 10,000 megawatts via a gasification plant.
The gasification plant is an engineering system that he described as part of his lecture titled “My Engineering Odyssey: Energy Security, Energy Sustainability, and Bringing Power to the People,” which transforms organic solid materials into synthetic gas for electric power generation and other uses.
Large-scale conventional power plants in Nigeria generate vast quantities of electricity, which is then transmitted over long distances. The need to lay transmission lines across the entire country is a major drawback because it would lead to enormous costs. Due to the reliance on imported materials, there is a lack of the necessary technical manpower to sustain this balance of power.
Distributed energy generation is the most viable option right now. Micro and mini grids can be set up all over Nigeria to accomplish this goal of producing and distributing electricity on a regional scale. One of the technologies that can help you do this is a gasification plant. Distributed generation allows for power generation and management to occur on a smaller scale.
“When you have a large number of these smaller grids, you can start connecting them to form a network. You can inject massive amounts of energy into our power sector with this setup, all with minimal outlay on transmission lines and other infrastructure. This technology is a game-changer because it makes it possible to provide 10,740 megawatts of power to the country’s 774 local government areas. That’s already more than the national grid can produce and transmit. Injecting massive amounts of energy into our sector is possible in as little as two to three years, provided the political will is there. Because we would be producing fuel from waste materials and coal, both of which are abundant in this country, only gasification technology can give you that versatility, he said.
He added, “With the current epileptic power supply in the country occasioned by the frequent collapse of the national grid, this is the time to give proper attention to alternative power source.”
Like oil refineries, which transform crude oil into petrol and other products, our gasification plant turns solid wastes into gas. The money is needed for manufacturing on a large scale.
Changing the existing diesel generators to run on gas will convert them into a mini-grid, allowing organisations to rely on them with confidence.
Organisations in Nigeria that rely solely on the public power supply have seen their outputs and services suffer as a result, and the country’s economy as a whole has suffered as a result. “Some organisations can no longer operate under the epileptic power supply with price of diesel always on the high side,” he said.
Prof. Charles Igwe, Vice Chancellor of UNN and event chairman, said that Nigerian universities cannot be truly autonomous if their administrations can produce services that would make them self-sustaining in his address.
He said that Prof. Ejiogu’s lecture was particularly relevant because Nigeria is still struggling with erratic power, and that tapping into the lecturer’s alternative power generation would save Nigeria money.
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