Electricity is a scarce commodity in Nigeria. With just over 4,000 megawatts supplying nearly 220 million people, the electricity access deficit stands at about 40% nationwide. The picture looks even darker in rural areas. There, 73% of the population is off the power grid.
Rural electrification is crucial to achieve Sustainable Development Goal 7: “access to
affordable, reliable, sustainable and modern energy for all.”
Enter mini-grids: community-scale electricity generation and distribution systems, typically under 100 kilowatts in size.
Mini-grids have emerged in the last decade as a cost-effective solution for many rural parts of Africa. According to one estimate, the cost of producing mini-grid electricity in Africa could fall from 60 (US) cents per kilowatt-hour to just 22 cents by 2030, compared with an average of 53 cents for alternatives like diesel generators.
So-called third-generation mini-grids are powered wholly or partly by renewable energy sources. They are especially attractive because they can help to simultaneously decentralize and decarbonise national energy systems.
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