The Guardian newspaper reported that “The Nigerian power sector has been in crisis for many years. Much of the generation, transmission and distribution capacity has become worn out or damaged. The average annual per capita power consumption, only 155 kWh, is among the lowest in the world. And this in the world’s 5th largest oil producer. Nigeria’s per capita electricity consumption is 7% of Brazil’s and 3% of South Africa’s. At the same time, at least 50% of Nigerian households have no connection whatsoever to the grid. Self-generation (diesel or petrol generators) in Nigeria is estimated to be 6,000MW”.
Nigerian Power Sector Deregulation
Twenty new power generation companies, a distribution firm and the Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Company Plc (NBETC) were recently formally issued operational licences by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Company (NERC). NBETC, otherwise known as the ‘Bulk Trader’, got its official trading licence to commence business as an entity in the power sector as well as the manager of the Federal Government/World Bank’s Partial Risk Guarantee (PRG) scheme. Eight firms were also granted off-grid generation licences, 10 firms got grid-connected licences, two got licences for embedded generation while one got licence for distribution network. (Source: http://fredstanly.com/gen_licences.html)
With the recent deregulation of the Nigerian power sector, each one of the Distribution Companies (DISCOs) paid about N13.5Million for their licenses and consequently discovered that they had indeed inherited a terribly dysfunctional power systems where there is ABSOLUTELY no comprehensive audit record of their operational assets.
How can the DISCOs ever hope to deliver optimal electricity and get returns on investment when they have no idea where the transformers and meters are located? No wonder Nigeria had been groping in the darkness for decades!
Generating a 1,000billion Mega Watts wiill not automatically banish darkness in Nigeria and translate to constant power supply especially if the elements of the power network are not consistently managed for efficiency.and effectively. The absence of a functional geospatial database of operational assets is therefore putting the DISCOs in a precarious condition where they struggle to hit the ground running.
Nigerian Company Offers Geographic Intelligence For Smart Power Asset Management
Spatial Technologies Ltd (STL) -Nigerian award winning mapping and Geographic Intelligence Solution and the proud recipient of the prestigious RIMA Foundation Award for innovative Location based solution is happy to announce a contract by one of the Nigerian DISCOs to audit and map the location of over 18million electric power assets comprising transformers and meters for both residential and industrial areas of the States
STL is using a team of 250 experienced field data analysts for this project to comb the nooks and crannies of 3 Nigerian States for location audit, tagging and mapping of the inherited electricity assets from PHCN . The main idea of this project is to empower the DISCO to know with a high sense of certainty WHAT is WHERE.
STL is deploying an innovative asset asset audit and mapping solution called SmartForce which arms each field analysts with a rugged PDA or iPAD running a proprietary App with a superior and innovative capability that allows up to 1,000 field staff working remotely from any part of Nigeria concurrently to capture point data consistently and upload raw field data directly to STL’s dedicated server in Lagos using “Over The Air” (OTA) technology via GPRS in real-time from smart PDA or iPAD.
With a superior technical capability offered by SmartForce, the field analysts are expected to visit an estimated 6 million households for electricity meter audit .
Knowing that some properties in Nigeria have multiple meters, the expected geospatial database to be delivered is predicted to contain over 18million individual Meters and Transformers. SmartForce offers a typical field data Analysts the extended capability of uploading raw field data directly to a remote pre-configured server located in STL’s head office in Lagos where the data is validated, versioned and populated in the database.
According to Ireti Ajala -the CEO of STL “This is a highly ambitious undertaken and could easily be argued to represent the most extensive and complex location mapping project ever undertaken by a private company in Nigeria. We are extremely excited at the prospect of delivering such a huge project to compliment the excellent value offerings of our client. We are therefore deploying SmartForce solution for the confidence and reliability brought to a project of such complexity. ”
Ajala added, “Spatial Technologies Ltd is a company of thinkers, integrators, innovators, and dreamers. We are developers, strategists and researchers. We are passionate about digital maps, we are also excited about where GIS solutions and spatial technologies can take us in Nigeria. That passion has established STL as a leader in this dynamic arena in Nigeria. We are recognized in Nigeria for our unique map-based solutions and service. Now you know why STL was awarded the 2013 Top 20 West African Convergence Leader Award“
SmartForce Solution is a well tested and tried solution that was used by STL on some past high profile field data capturing projects in recent times. The tool was particularly useful in the UBA PLC branch network mapping project
The business value proposition of the SmartForce solution include the followings:
- Ensuring that the project’s data capture solution completely eliminates incidental human error from field data recopying, etc. This will therefore improve the overall data quality target.
- This completely removes the physical threat to a smart workforce from going around with expensive data capture gadgets that could potentially draw attention to them and increases the risk of physical threats causing valid concern for their personal safety especially whiles working in security volatile regions of Nigeria.
SmartForce will ensure that STL’s workforce works smarter and more efficiently.
STL takes the issue of data quality and validation very seriously. STL developed a robust data validation methodology that ensured the expected database is consistent, valid and reliable. STL is using a combination of industry standards for data validation and integrity in ensuring that the the target accuracy level is met and the project is delivered at a higher level of technical integrity
Online Power Asset Management Solution
STL is happy to announce the successful development, testing and deployment of a visionary online portal for power asset location audit, tracking and management. This portal offers DISCOs superior solution in effective tracking and the management of their operational and physical assets consistently and efficiently
This portal was put together by STL’s team of developers and programmers to demonstrate several possibilities in effective asset management for the emerging Nigerian power sector. T
The online portal provides the functionality which supports a generic search scenario for transformers or electricity meters with an integrated online map.of Nigeria. Searches can be by suburbs e.g. Ikeja, by Asset type, by capacity e.g. 425KVA or by manufacturer e.g. SIEMENS
These assets could be published on this portal and offered either as a turn-key solution or a service to the DISCOs. A user can click on the list of returned result for a typical search to get more information about that specific asset.
This comprehensive information includes the following details:
- The address of the specific asset selected
- A description of the asset
- The capacity or other technical details required by the DISCO
- The manufacturer of the asset
- A picture of the specific asset
- A link to the a digital map where the asset is located within the area of operation
Integrating Asset Location on Google Map
Google now hosts fairly accurate city map of Nigeria with acceptable spatial integerity. This therefore offers tremendious opportunity to publishing Nigerian content with locational properties using Google map.
Each of the 18million records to be delivered in the geospatial database is expected to be published on Google map for superior location advantage in connecting a specific asset with a location.
Let there be Light
Providing constant electricity in NIgeria will take more than the usual “forijagbo” style (i.e. an approach that puts undue premium on learning on the job over advance detailed preparation) that NEPA and PHCN were known for. It requires doing things the right way to get the right result since actions and reactions are equal but opposites. STL is determined to continue offering superior Geographic Intelligent solutions to the power distribution efforts in Nigeria as part of our contribution to the provision of constant electricity in Nigeria
