Nigerian power sector: Why gas turbines will be relevant for the next 50 years

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Several cases of the need for continuous utilization of gas turbines for power production and why gas turbines will be relevant in the next 50 years in the Nigerian power sector are presented in this paper. Using 7 criteria; the cost of installation, operation and maintenance costs, levelized cost of electricity, capacity factor, the efficiency of energy conversion, power to size ratio/area coverage and environmental pollution, gas turbine operation was compared with wind and solar energy technologies. Gas turbine for power production appears to be more favourable in 5 out of the 7 criteria including lower installation cost which is a very important factor for poor and developing nations like Nigeria. The quantity of fuel for producing different quantities of power using gas turbines was estimated. Nigeria has huge proven reserves of natural gas which is the fuel for gas turbines. If we go for combined cycle power plants which have low specific fuel consumption (SFC), 50% of the natural gas reserves are enough to produce some 35 GW of electricity for over 50 years. The current rate of natural gas production can produce 27.06 GW of electricity at 0.06kg/s.MW sfc. It was also observed that the current installed power from gas turbines is too low compared to the power demand; hence, further installations are required. Pollution should not be an issue in installing more gas turbine plants because the gas turbine is a clean-burning engine and the present installed capacity is insignificant compared to what is obtainable in some advanced nations. The results in this work will guide gas turbine operators in planning for further installation of gas turbine power plants. The study does not rule out the need to exploit solar photovoltaic system and wind turbines in areas with high sunshine and high wind speeds respectively, for off-grid power production.