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Nigeria Electric Power
Hydroelectric power furnished about 14 percent of the
energy
consumed by Nigerians in the 1980s. Total energy used in
the form
of electricity was considerably larger, however, because
much of
the energy provided by petroleum products and gas was
converted
into electricity. In 1990 most electricity was supplied by
NEPA.
This agency had been established in 1972 as a
semiautonomous
government activity through the merger of the Electric
Corporation of Nigeria (ECN--created by the government in
1950 to
generate and transmit power nationally) and the Niger Dam
Authority (NDA--set up in 1962 to develop the economic
potential
of the Niger River). As part of its mandate, the NDA had
constructed the Kainji Dam and an associated hydroelectric
plant,
which began operations in 1968. Until the late 1970s, the
plant
was the principal source of Nigeria's electrical power.
The demand for power grew at an average annual rate
estimated
at 15 to 20 percent after the start of the 1973-74 oil
boom.
NEPA's total generating plant, having an installed
capacity of
881 megawatts in FY 1976--almost half of which was located
at the
Kainji hydroelectric plant--was unable to meet the rapidly
growing requirement. By FY 1978 an additional 250
megawatts had
been installed, of which 200 megawatts were at Kainji, but
a
drought in 1977 and 1978 significantly lowered the level
of
Kainji Reservoir and thus reduced the plant's output.
During the
drought, blackouts were frequent, verging on the
catastrophic for
major industrial establishments. Goods in the process of
assembly
had to be destroyed, and interruptions in machine
operations
substantially reduced productivity. The situation improved
in the
1980s, with two 120-megawatt units added to the Kainji
hydroelectric station, ten units of 120 megawatts each
installed
in Sapele, new hydroelectric stations built at Shiroro on
the
Kaduna River and Jebba downstream from Kainji Reservoir,
and
another 200 megawatts added at various smaller plants.
Power was distributed through a national grid that
linked
many of the large towns, some of which had been previously
served
by local diesel power stations. Yet the power sector,
lacking
spare parts, had neglected maintenance to the point that
generating capacity was rapidly declining.
Data as of June 1991
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