NEP: REA bridging electrification gap with off grid solutions

By Etuka Sunday

The Rural Electrification Agency (REA) through the Nigeria Electrification Project (NEP) has been providing off-grid solutions to bridge the electricity gap in unserved and underserved rural communities which includes households, micro, small, and medium enterprises, Federal Universities, as well as healthcare centers across the six geopolitical zones of the country, with financial support from the World Bank (WB) and African Development Bank (AfDB) respectively.

The NEP is private sector driven and it provides grant subsidies under its; solar hybrid mini-grids, standalone solar home systems and productive use appliance components to bridge the access to electrification gap, and stimulate load demand, whilst also improving the means of livelihood of the consumers, towards making the mini-grid powered communities more attractive and viable.

A total sum of $550m USD was provided by both the World Bank and African Development Bank as support for the implementation of the off-grid solution projects with $213m USD for the mini-grid components of both WB and AfDB, $75m USD for standalone solar homes system component of WB, $205m USD for Energizing Education Programme (EEP) Phases II and III components of WB and AfDB, and $20m USD for productive use component of AfDB as well as $37m USD for technical assistance.

The objective of the project is to provide clean, safe, reliable and affordable electricity access to a minimum of 2.5 million Nigerians which equates to about 500,000 households.

A breakdown of what the programme has achieved so far is as follows:

-Signing of grant agreements under the mini-grid sub-component with 13 companies for the deployment of solar mini-grids across 86 sites in off-grid communities.

-Deployed and commissioned 7 solar hybrid mini-grids, with a total connection of 3,828 and 529.79kW energy capacity.

-Signed grant agreements with 26 companies under the Output Based Fund (OBF) sub-component of standalone solar home systems for homes and MSMEs.

-Installed 221,971  Solar Home Systems (SHS) in households, micro, small, and medium enterprises (MSMEs), as well as public facilities.

-Signed contract agreements with 8 companies for the deployment of containerized solar hybrid solutions to power 100 Isolation and treatment Centers (ITCs) under the REA/NEP COVID-19 & Beyond intervention programme.

-Conducted community engagement exercises in 9 States (Ogun, Cross River, Sokoto, Niger, Plateau, Abia, Bauchi, Kano and Anambra) to sensitize and have community buy-in for the sustainability of the NEP mini grid projects.

-Commenced preparations for the deployment of solar hybrid power plants in Federal Universities and Teaching Hospitals under the Energizing Education Programme Phases II and III.