ECHETA, D. O., OKPARA, G.I., & EMERENINI, F.M.

HOUSEHOLD DEMAND FOR ELECTRICITY IN OWERRI METROPOLIS ; ESTIMATING THE ALTERNATIVE SUPPLY ECHETA, D. O., OKPARA, G.I., & EMERENINI, F.M.

. Introduction • The paper examines Household Demand for Electricity in Owerri Metropolis; Estimating the Alternative supply. • It uses well structured questionnaire to garner data on the amount spent on both public power supply and that provided by the individuals .

Motivation of the paper and problem statement • The incidences of power outage, load shading and epileptic power supply has prompted this paper . • To Mordi, Englama and Adebusiyi (2010) citing Sule and Anyanwu (1994), installed capacity of private generators is estimated to be about half of NEPA’s total generation capacity, comprising numerous small units that are expensive to operate.

Relevance of the paper • The analysis is useful to us on how much it will cost to provide electricity by an average household in the precarious situation we are. • Since power (electricity) provided by PHCN is poor, the expenditure on other sources of power supply which basically is the generator is important to us.

Organisation of the paper • section one deals with the introduction and statement of problems. • Section two, has the literature review and other contextual issues. • Section three provides the methodology. • Section four discusses the results while • section five ushers the conclusion and recommendation for policy analysis.

Review of related litrature • Many works have cocentrated on the importance of electricity and the need for its alternative in driving growth. • To Chen, Kuo and Chen (2007) electricity infrastructure plays an important role in economic growth and employment generation for developing countries more than the developed ones.

According to Mahedi (2012), quoting Mozumder and Marathe (2007) in Bangladesh, expansion of economic activities is restrained by the under developed electricity infrastructure., • Olaye and Akinbode (2012) found out that expenditure on generator power supply increased with house hold income and age of the house hold. They are of the view that money spent in this regard could have been avoided if there was regular supply of power from the public sources.

To Sambo (2008) notwithstanding the availability of vast natural resources in the country, electricity demand in Nigeria far outstrips the supply. • To Electricity Regulatory Authority (ERA) (2006), in Uganda electricity is part of infrastructure, which contributes to economic development through increasing productivity, providing amenities, which enhances the quality of life and acting as immediate input to production

. Electricity consumption in Nigeria exhibit similar pattern with the rest of African countries mentioned. For instance in the 1970’s electricity consumption recorded significant growth in Nigeria . But declined later, largely due to lower electricity generation caused by shortages in gas supply for power generation .

Methodology • Owerri metropolis is in Imo State serving as both the commercial and administrates capital of the state. Owerri metropolis is made up of Owerri municipal, Owerri north, Owerri west, and Mbaitoli local government areas . • Owerri metropolis constitutes the state capital and the largest city. Its population is estimated to be about one quarter of the entire State population estimated at about 3,934, 899 million inhabitants.

Sample Design • We involved a multi stage sampling technique which delineated Owerri metropolis into four local Government Areas, namely: • Owerri municipal, • Owerri west , • Owerri north and • Mbaitoli Local Government Areas. • Consequently, through probability sampling methods involving systematic random sampling, Households where selected form each of the four LGAs. • In all one hundred Household were selected from each LGA amounting to total number of 400 questionnaire distributed.

Result and Discussions • Load characteristics of household . From the load analysis, the survey questionnaire show that 297 households accounting for 74.2 percent of electricity consumed is during the peak period of 6.00pm – 12 midnight. • Whereas 74 house hold 4 percent and 29 household accounting for 18.5 percent and 29 household accounting for 7.3 percent reveal electricity consumed in the shoulder (6.00am – 6.00pm) and off peak (12 mid night – 6am) respectively. • The implication is that total energy consumed is highest during the period’s 6.00 pm – 12 midnight when workers both in private, government and personal business are at home.

Power Sources and Back up Alternatives. • The survey reveals that 88.7 percent of the household does not get power supply from the main grid to meet up with their energy demand while 11.3 percent shows that the main grid meets up with their energy demand. • We are not surprised since few locations in Owerri especially houses along the PHCN sub stations Egbu Owerri and its environs experience some level of power supply as part of their corporate social responsibility.

Summary of findings • household energy demand is for domestic production and not industrial . • The survey equally reveals that only 4 percent of the household utilize below 20 percent of their standby generator. • 10 percent of the household utilize 20 – 40 percent of the back up generator while 15 percent of the household utilize 40 – 60 percent of the back up generator. • However, 71 percent of the household reveals that they utilize their standby generator up 60 percent and above.

The estimated total amount for running the generating set for a month gives the average of N16990.00. • While the total amount in naira spent on paying PHCN bill in a month is on the average N5845. • The implication of this sum is that on daily basis it takes a household to spend N566.33 for running back up generator. • In contrast, the power provided by PHCN, if regular will only cost N195 daily.

Conclusion • In conclusion, the paper x-rayed Household demand for electricity in Owerri metropolis estimating the alternative supply. • This study has added to the body of knowledge on household and residential energy consumption for Nigeria. • Using descriptive statistics, the paper reveals that power supplied from hydro supply of PHCN though not regular is cheaper and cleaner. • The paper in its summary reveals that much more than required is used in running and servicing generating sets in Nigeria .

Recommendation • There is need to mitigate the power supply shortages by increasing the generation capacity throughout the country. • It is expected that more hydro plants be established • The need to further strengthen the Integrated Power Project (IPP) in the country is important toward moving to reliable clean energy. • Government at all levels should support private developers who may wish to produce and distribute mini hydro power stations. Expectedly this will lead to increase in capacity of power generated. • PHCN should assess state of the art equipment to circumvent some avoidable technical hitches. • Finally, there should be neighborhood organization that will gather resources to run single large generating sets to curb high incidence of noise pollution and other environmental hazard posed by rampant small generators littered every where. • This will have enormous advantage in terms of economies of scale and cost reduction.

THANK YOU ALL

ECHETA, D. O., OKPARA, G.I., & EMERENINI, F.M.