UNIDO's Country Service Framework for Nigeria .

UNIDO's Country Service Framework (CSF) which was finalized in cooperation with the Goverenment of Nigeria, specifies the industrial sectors, functional areas and regions of Nigeria where future UNIDO activities will be focused. The CSF identified rural industrialization as one of UNIDO's priority areas and sustainable energy as a major programme for implementing Component 3, ie. Promoting cleaner and environmentally friendly technologies and policies with primary focus on key sectors such as Renewable Energy through small hydro, bio-mass and Solar Technologies, rural electrification grids and capacity building and training in the maintenance and use of renewable energy technologies. In line with the CSF as well as the priorities of the Government of Nigeria, the following has been identified for Government of Nigeria's support and UNIDO's technical assistance to further strengthen the activities of the ECN to reach out into the rural areas not only in Nigeria but also in the West African region through:

1. supporting sustainable energy programme through introduction of energy efficiency and conservation technologies

2. facilitating policy formulation, capacity building, awareness building, training and information dissemination in the area of renewable energy in general and small hydro power in particular, and energy efficient technologies through the establishment of a UNIDO Regional Centre for Small Hydro Power;

3. establishing a renewable energy information network for facilitating information and know-how for implementing renewable energy technologies in rural areas of Nigeria and Western Africa.

TARGET BENEFICIARIES

The benefits from the project will be enjoyed by:

1. Rural communities all over Africa, who will be able to get guidance for having reliable energy at an affordable price, leading to improved income generating activities and finally helping in poverty alleviation through development of SHP projects.

2. Relevant government ministries and agencies responsible for the provision of infrastructure to rural population, Non-Governmental Organizations and Cooperatives in the region.

3. River Basin Authorities and private sector benefit from capacity building activities.

4. All sectors of people through promotion of Clean Energy, having reduced emission of GHG and thereby adhering to Kyoto Protocol, of which Nigeria is a signatory. Energy Commission of Nigeria (ECN), Federal Ministry of Water Resource (FMWR), Federal Ministry of Power and Steel (FMP&S), Federal Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Development (FMAg & RD), Sate Governments, Rural Electrification Boards, River Basin Authorities, UNIDO, IC-SHP/IN-SHP in Hangzhou, China and All African countries will be the stakeholders.

EXPECTED RESULTS

The International Network on Small Hydro Power (IN-SHP) based in Hangzhou, China, an International Organization with over 330 members from over 70 countries, mostly energy related global organizations, and having NGO status with UN, as well as the UNIDO sponsored International Center on SHP embedded in the IN-SHP, are the repository of best global know how on SHP, backed by China's development and running of over 42,000 SHP stations with a total capacity exceeding 30,000 MW, serving not less than 300 million people. Most of the projects constructed in China are multi functional projects, with emphasis on electricity generation, water for drinking purpose and irrigation, flood control, fish farming, environmental protection, tourism development and the like. This type of multifaceted SHP generation is possible in Nigeria as evident from the example of NESCO plant on Kura falls, Platau state, as well as in other countries in the region too. The Regional Centre can take stock of the current situation in SHP development utilising the global database available with UNIDO and its sponsored Centre (IC-SHP), define and map SHP and RE resources, define the technology, cost and the market for RE systems etc, specific to Nigeria and the region. Since the market is not mature, the Centre could facilitate technology transfer especially on Micro and Mini SHP technology, eventually paving the way for local manufacturing of RE technologies. The Centre could also help speed up the exploitation of SHP by facilitating the increase in the installed capacity from what it is now by a factor of at least 5, by the year 2010. This would translate to several villages and towns in the country, which will primarily depend on SHP to supply power. This would in turn, greatly promote the process of rural electrification and income generation thereby alleviating poverty. Similar to the implementation of the IC-SHP in Hangzhou, China, by establishing this Regional Centre project, UNIDO would be able to identify the barriers that exists in implementing RE systems in the country and in the region, and facilitate industrial development of RE which will bring obvious energy, economic, environmental and social benefits. The main focus of the Regional Centre would be to eventually integrate renewable energy mainly through SHP, into its energy plans as an alternative option to the energy structure of Nigeria and the African region, contributing to anywhere between 10 - 15 % of the total energy needs. UNIDO, through this Regional Centre, would be able to encourage technological improvement and innovation for RE based industries. Currently, there are none, or their impact is negligible, the outcome of long-term objective of the Centre will be to influence factors which would make the production cost of Small Hydro Power to compete with conventional energy, locally and internationally. The Regional Centre, through international expertise would be able to build up, both medium term and long term strategies, and policies and take measures on the aspects of providing incentives for using Small Hydro Power, such as investment, tax benefit, credit policies, pricing levels of power distributed locally, and the management of RE based power systems generally in the country. Small-scale hydroelectric facilities can supply in principle, significant amounts of electricity for irrigation or pumping of potable water, for lighting, for health or for educational purposes. The total potential of such a resource is very poorly documented, but it is going to be certainly large. Up to 1998, hydro engineers concentrated on developing the larger sites, where the economy of scale enabled the production of energy at a cost low enough to compete with thermal power, fueled with low cost oil. However, with the prospect of rapidly depleting fossil fuels, coupled with steady rise in oil prices, attention has turned back to the smaller sites previously regarded as uneconomic. Moreover, the remarkable advancement in the technology of development of turbines suitable for utilizing small falls and small discharges efficiently, has increased enormously the chances of development of small hydro installations to a large extent. For very small hydro plants of capacity less than 500 kW, electronic load controllers have been developed to replace the governor. These controllers maintain a constant load on the turbine and hence constant flow, diverting surplus power to a resistor and is either dissipated or used to heat water. Many countries now have vigorous small hydropower development and rural electrification programs, due to the several advantages offered by them. The advantage of operating them in hilly and remote areas and the elimination of long transmission lines and the shorter gestation periods, have lent added attraction. It has very little or no adverse environmental impact, and the effects on stream ecology are minor.

OVERALL PROJECT OBJECTIVE

The main objective is to establish a Regional Centre for Small Hydro Power Development in Africa at Abuja, Nigeria, for providing technical assistance, training, awareness and information and consultancy services on SHP development within the country and to countries in the West Africa Region.

Specific objectives of the proposed Regional Centre

1. Provide technical assistance for the development of Small Hydro Power to Nigeria and other countries in the Western African Region.

2. Promote investments for implementation of SHP schemes in Africa.

3. Develop people oriented sustainable development energy initiatives based on SHP.

4. Initiate comprehensive programmes for popularising and implementing SHP projects.

5. Initiate sustainable energy development through awareness creation and skill acquisition, capacity building, training, research, information dissemination and comprehensive consultancy programmes related to the development and implementation of SHP projects in Nigeria and other countries in Africa.

6. Institute a Chair to facilitate the full time leadership assistance of an international expert on SHP at the Centre for research, training and consultancy related to comprehensive and integrated development of SHP systems.

7. Provide comprehensive research and development facilities related to: (a) Turbine, generator and auxiliary systems. (b) Investigation on hydrology and geology of sites (including GIS). (c) Investigation on watersheds, catchments area and ecology related to micro and mini hydro resources and (d) Peoples' participation and socio-economic development linked to SHP.

8. To institute investigations on economic exploitation of water resources for the development of small/mini/micro hydropower systems, linking it with other socio-economic sectors, including standardisation of equipment.

9. Publish best practices and successful SHP case studies.

10. Promote small hydro systems as a tool for sustainable development including enhancing social welfare and equity, thus giving opportunity to the people to participate in the construction, operation and maintenance of small hydro systems in the generation and utilisation of electricity.

11. Examine the feasibility of local manufacture of SHP main equipment or components and encourage related technology transfer.