RELIABILITY OF DISTRIBUTION NETWORKS IN NIGERIA: IKORODU, LAGOS STATE AS A CASE STUDY
Oshin, Ola Austin, Onile Abiodun E, Adanikin Ariyo & Fakorede Ebenezer
Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering,
Elizade University, IIara-mokin, ondo
Email: austin.oshin@elizadeuniversity.edu.ng
ABSTRACT
Nigerians
are experiencing a lot of difficulties as a result of poor Generation,
Transmission and Distribution of electricity. As of 2016, the electricity
energy consumption in the world from the world fact book revealed that the
average power per capital (watts per person) in the United States is 1,377
Watts. In Canada, it is as high as 1,704 Watts per person and in South Africa;
it is 445 Watts per person. The average power per capital in Australia is 1,112
Watts and in New Zealand it is 1,020 W per person. Whereas, the average
electricity consumed in watts per person in Nigeria is just 14 Watts. This has put Nigeria in a rank of 189 out of
219 countries estimated. Currently, power
generating capacity in Nigeria is estimated to be 6,803 megawatts, with average
working capacity between 3,500 MW for over 170 million people (20.59 W/person).
The power
Companies in Nigeria face a lot of problems. Some of the highest priority
issues being low generation of power, inadequate equipment and technical team
for the clearance of faults, inadequate protection devices, transmission losses
and low reliability of the distribution system. The Nigerian power problem has
resulted to incessant planned, forced and unplanned outages. This has grounded
many activities and has destroyed many industrial operations and processes. In
addition, it has resulted to erratic and unreliable supply of electricity. It
has reduced productivity and has increased unemployment and crime rates in the
country. Hence, an analytical method is developed to study the dynamic-
reliability of the distribution system, as well as optimizes the occurrence of
faults and outages along the consumer point in each feeder in order to improve
the performance of the system. A great need for fault evaluation and reliability
studies of electric power system was observed. This research work analyzed the
problems facing the Distribution System. Efforts were made to provide adequate
solutions to the problems. The research work evaluated the occurrence and
causes of faults and outages in the Distribution Network Area for a period of 8
years. In addition, it analyzed and reduced the effects of power losses along
each of the feeders in the Distribution Network Area. This research work
revealed the downtime, failure rate and reliability index along each of the
eight feeders. It also improved the reliability and performance of the
distribution system.
Keywords: Fault Evaluation, Improvement of Electric Power Distribution Network, Reliability
