POWER SUPPLY HASSLES

Electricity supply continues to be a very hot topic across the globe, from the developed to the developing nations of the world. Experts, analysts and other stake-holders meet from time to time to deliberate and take positions on.
While most of the countries from the developing world have enough power to supply and more than enough reserves to spare, the same cannot be said of the other developing nations. The former discuss on power quality and security while the latter discourse is always on improving Power generation to meet local demands.
The table below shows Power generating and consumption per capita in some countries

COUNTRY POPULATION POWER GEN. CAPACITY (WATTS /PERSON)

USA----293.6 million----848,300MW (year 2002)----2,889.30

GERMANY -----82.6 million----115,000 MW (year 2002)----1,392.25

UK (England& Wales)-59.7 million----76,300MW(year 2001)----1,265.90

SOUTH AFRICA---42.7 million-------44,650MW (year 2001)-----1,046.70

BRAZIL-----179.1 million----86,020MW------480.30

CHINA------1,300.1 million-----338,300 MW (year 2001)-----260.00

INDIA-----1,086 million------115,520 MW------106.321

GHANA-----20.7 million-------1,762MW-------85.12

NIGERIA------137.3 million-----4,000 MW ( year 2001 expected)--29.133

sources-www.cslforum.org

From the table above , it becomes clearer why a country like Nigeria has had to contend with frequent Power Outages/ insufficient supply. The value of 29.133 W per person s not enough to light a bulb, that is even when the generation of 4,000 MW has been achieved. Recent moves to improve on the country’s Power generating capacity is a welcome development as well as the Privatisation of the State-owned Electric Utility whose Monopoly over the years has not helped the nation thus far.
Aside impeding Industrialization ,insufficient/ erratic Power Supply takes it greater tolls on the living standard of a country’s citizenry. Job losses, high unemployment rates and poverty couple with heavy taxes and faulty billing systems which people are made to put up with.
HOW DO WE THEN TACKLE THE PROBLEM OF POWER SUPPLY IN DEVELOPING NATIONS?
This is the question all must rise to give answers to, especially if Africa is to really cease being the "dark continent" indeed when it comes to Power Supply. Thank God there are improvements in the North and South of the continent, but the other parts still has a lot be done, because people need a solution.
In Nigeria today, everybody is jokingly said to be an independent power producer (IPP) ostensibly because everyone is now believed to own an electric generating set.
Does owning a generator set solve the problems? People have argued that generator importers are ripping people of their money while supplying substandard sets.
Other have called for the use of Inverters popularly called silent Generators as they eliminate most of the undesirably features of the generating sets in residential quarters. Another group is working on the use of solar panels especially for light loads.
These and other alternatives to conventional power supply as well as other technical updates will be the focus of this blog. Contributions are welcomed online. Be free to drop a line. I‘ll be publishing very useful ones.
Watch-out for the next post- Dave