AN EXAMINATION OF THE ELECTRICITY ACT 2023: CATALYST FOR RENEWABLE ENERGY IN NIGERIA?

Abstract

The electricity sector in Nigeria is glaringly fraught with challenges notwithstanding the huge amount spent by government. To this end, it is obvious that the commitment has not yielded any significant result premised on the fact that supply has regularly been erratic. By diverse observation, alternative reliance which has majorly been focused on use of fossil fuel (gas) has also failed several times. There is no doubt that Nigeria endowed with abundant renewable energy sources inclusive of solar, wind, biomass, hydro, and et-cetera has willingly lagged behind in sufficiency of production of electricity. Nigeria has only been able to harness hydro energy for production of electricity which has been grossly insufficient. Data available to authors show that the newly enacted Electricity Act 2023 has provided comprehensive provisions for consumption and utilization of the diverse sources of renewable energy in Nigeria. The paper therefore argued that the Electricity Regulatory Commission should be mandated to ensure that generators produce electricity from renewable energy sources potentially integrated into the national grid and that purchasers should be obligated to purchase renewable energy from the producers. The authors therefore maintained that rapid development of renewable energy sources should attract the political will of government as well as ensuring that the provisions of the Electricity Act be adhered to with concomitant quantum of social awareness.