Experts advocate smart solutions, peer-to-peer energy trading to bridge electricity gap

Experts in the renewable energy and smart grid sector have urged stakeholders in the country to embrace peer-to-peer energy trading as well as other solutions in improving access to electricity in Nigeria.

According to the experts at a workshop on intelligent distributed energy resources management systems in Lagos, yesterday, problems in the nation’s energy sector need to be addressed by exploring smart solutions and overhauling the value chain in Nigeria’s power industry.

For instance, a professor and Director of Smart Infrastructure and Industry Research, Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU), United Kingdom (UK), Bamidele Adebisi, stated that peer-to-peer energy trading is key to addressing Nigeria’s power demands.

He said that peer-to-peer energy trading is possible and doable in Nigeria, but that for such to happen; a lot of things in Nigeria and rest of the world must change.

According to him, the shortage of grid-supplied electricity in Nigeria is a major challenge with severe impact on business activity, economic productivity, health care and education delivery.

Adebisi, who stated that Smart Infrastructure and Industry Research (SIIR) group at Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) has a track record of research and development of sustainable solutions for providing affordable and reliable energy, urged Nigerians to embrace technologies with insights, maintaining that the nation must trail the path of developed economies of the world to address its power problems.

“We have to embrace technologies, because sometimes, we kick against technology and it is because we do not know much about it. I think we focus so much on our problems; there are countries that are going through the same challenges. My advice is that we start thinking about the way forward .

“Things are changing rapidly and Nigeria must not be left out. The government, research institutes and the private sector need to work together to transform power sector,” he said.

In his presentation, titled “Data-Driven Analytic Tools: Energy-as-a-Service, Founder and Chief Executive Officer, Qbots Energy, United Kingdom, Vijay Natarajan, said data analytics was necessary in developing the energy of the future as it helps energy suppliers to analyse, supervise and optimise energy-related KPIs like production costs, consumption, distribution amongst others.

According to him, while peak electricity demand is expected to increase between 3-8GW in 2030, the demand and adoption of electric vehicles will grow from 250,000 in March 2019 to 25 million by 2023.

Chief Executive Officer, Total Business Solutions (TBS) Consulting Limited, Leke Olufade, who chaired the panel session, noted that all stakeholders must begin to see the nation’s enormous problems as opportunities to move it forward.

The panel said that there should be creation of exchange programme for energy management between Nigeria and other countries.