There is little doubt that utilities today face a major challenge in maintaining sustained access to energy and in safeguarding its long-term delivery to consumers.
It is also indisputable that Nigeria needs to improve on its installed electricity generation capacity.
In light of this inescapable reality, it is encouraging to see that the Federal Government has a definite roadmap that will help it achieve its aggressive target of 40,000MW-installed capacity by 2020
The challenges also provide us with great opportunities of leapfrogging obsolete technologies and leveraging on smart and modern technologies on our way to achieving energy security.
Such technologies could very successfully be adapted to drive progress across the entire country.
The Nigerian Utility sector is at a point where the need to roll-out smart meters is inevitable in other for each distributing and generating operators within the country to capitalize on the full revenue potential
Transmission, Generating & Distribution operators (TGDO), whose responsibility is to ensure the safe, secure, reliable flow of power to consumers, will face many challenges as the grid gets linked to a growing number of private and localized energy networks.
To overcome these difficulties and successfully manage the integration of new technologies onto the grid, energy retailers will rely on smart grid technology, and on the network management systems that will allow them to balance demand and supply more effectively.
An Intelligent Grid
As dynamic, intricately connected webs, utility networks present unique engineering and safety challenges that make them particularly complex to manage.
To facilitate the move towards localised power generation and help support the accelerating adoption of renewable energy sources, power operators will need to adapt their network infrastructure and IT resources to keep networks running smoothly even as new energy sources are added to them.
For energy utilities, the key to modernizing their network management systems lies in the data they will collect and analyse from the smart grid.
This will include not only consolidating the vast amount of information that next generation grids will provide them, but also quickly converting this into valuable network insight.
With the heightened awareness of network behaviour they will gain with the smart grid, operators can then take a more proactive approach to managing energy flow and deliver a more stable and reliable service to their customers.
Applied to localised power generation sites, this means that the grid can provide utilities with data-driven insight into network behaviour that will allow them to accommodate flow disruptions caused once these new energy sources are added to the grid.
To add to this, data analytics tools can help energy retailers optimise distribution to keep wastage to an absolute minimum.
Putting Data To Good Use
As the smart grid roll out takes form, utilities will begin collecting and analysing information from a growing number of data points to better understand how voltage is being distributed throughout their networks.
Modern network management systems can help utilities make the most of the information they collect from charging stations by allowing them to automatically adapt demand response to network conditions in near real-time.
With the ability to automatically balance power supply and demand in the grid, utilities will be able to tailor their energy distribution strategy to match real-world network behaviour, and open the door to new levels of power efficiency Nigeria badly needs.
Once they can redirect flow as required in this way, energy retailers can drastically reduce the risk of localised overloading or outages.
This level of control will help utilities avoid overburdening transformers to the point of failure, and preclude the significant damage to network assets that these malfunctions can cause.
Ultimately, network management systems will allow energy utilities to unite complex processes across the grid to optimise load distribution, which will in turn help them accommodate the addition of major new energy sources such as localised generation centres and renewables.
These solutions can also provide utilities with continuous updates on the status of their network assets, and therefore give them a valuable head-start on crucial maintenance and repair works.
Making A Meaningful Change
An intelligent energy management strategy will be vital for our Distributing and Generating operators as they work to achieve this.
The data analytics tools and cutting-edge IT applications that support their smart grid operations will help them make sure technologies integrate seamlessly with the national power infrastructure and provide the public with a meaningful and reliable energy supply.
adebayo sanni, country managing director, Oracle Nigeria