Hydropower In Nigeria

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1.0 Introduction A vast majority of planet earth is covered with water; two third of it according to geographers is filled with water. Nigeria is not exempted as it holds enormous hydro potentials which can be harnessed for rapid socio-economic development of the country. The Nigeria land scale is well drained by perennial rivers, streams, and springs; the water power from these rivers and streams can be harnessed to generate electricity via the construction of hydro- dams which generate the head that ultimately powers the hydro- turbine. In the mid 19th century the first effective water turbine was discovered, however today the modern hydro-turbines are compact, highly efficient and capable of turning at very high speed to deliver the expected…show more content…
Power is generated by mechanical conversion of the energy into electricity through a turbine, at a usually high efficiency rate. Depending on the volume of water discharged and height of fall (or head), hydropower can be large or small. Although there may not be any international consensus on the definition of small hydropower, an upper limit of 30 MW has been considered. Thus, 30 MW has been adopted as the maximum rating under this dispensation. Small hydro can further be subdivided into mini hydro (<100KW). Thus both mini and micro hydro schemes are subunits of the SHP classification”. Hydro power is a proven technology that is renewable, eco-friendly and can integrate easily with irrigation and township water supply…show more content…
Construction activities on the first hydropower station in Nigeria commenced in 1964 at Kainji on River Riger. The dam was commissioned in 1968 with an installed capacity of 320MW, and by 1978, the station had 8 plants with capacity of 760MW. Later on, the tail water from Kainji dam was utilized to generate 540MW at Jebba dam, 97 km downstream of Kainji dam. The third hydro electric-power (HEP) station, the Shiroro dam was commissioned in 1990 with an installed capacity of 60MW bringing the total installed capacity of hydro electric power (HEP) in Nigeria to 1900MW. There are a number of small hydropower stations, such as 3MW plant in Bage, 8MW plant in Kura and 8MW in Lere, 2MW station at kwall fall on N’Gell river (river Kaduna) and 8MWstation at Kura fall. The cumulative capacity of hydropower stations (small and large) is about 2000MW. This accounts for 32% of the combined installed capacity of hydro, thermal and gas power stations in Nigeria. The development of 2500MW mambilla hydropower station is in progress and the country still has potential for about 6000MW hydropower stations. Nigeria has just developed 23% of her feasible hydropower. This is very low compared to other African countries such as Lesotho which has developed 50% of her hydropower potential; Burkina faso developed 46% while Kenya has developed 34% of hydropower potential (opanefe and

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