Navigating the Prevailing Challenges of the Nigerian Power Sector

The entire value chain of the Nigerian power sector (the production, transmission and distribution sector) is bedeviled with numerous challenges. Challenges that hamper and make the seventh sustainable development goal only a mirage. This paper aims to take a panoramic view of the Nigerian power architecture, outlining the challenges of the various stakeholders (The Generation Companies, The Transmission Company of Nigeria, The National Control Center, The Distribution Companies, The Nigerian Bulk Electricity Trading Plc, The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, The Gas producers, The Nigerian Gas Company and the consumers) with the goal of providing a roadmap of solutions; solutions to light up the African largest economy and invariably guarantee her socio-economic development.

THE CASE ANALYSIS OF UPPER BIG BRANCH MINE

This article aims to analyze a catastrophic mining explosion which resulted in 29 deaths in West Virginia, U.S. The first reports upon the explosion suggested that the explosion happened due to lack of appropriate safety measures. However, further investigation revealed that the issue was deeper than merely the absence of appropriate safety measures. The negative organizational culture created by the leadership was considered as the root cause of this catastrophic incident. According to a case study published by The U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission in 2012, it appeared that the organization made systematic and aggressive efforts to prioritize production over the safety of its employees. The disaster could have been prevented if the leadership had taken appropriate safety measures. Leadership, who can see the big picture, understands that prioritizing safety results in overall performance improvement in the long term (Krause, 2005). It is possible to see the implications of such leadership mindset in the organization’s culture. Showing workers that the organization will always do the right thing to assure their safety is an important step toward building trust across the board. Otherwise, lack of trust and communication may eventually lead to tragic incidents as in the case of the Massey Energy. The despotic leadership, that constantly imposed fear on its employees to discourage them from voicing their opinions and questioning the existing conditions, eventually brought organizational deviance. Members of the organization neither had any meaningful communication nor appropriate information exchange. The absence of mutual trust and respect in the work environment was apparent. This paper offers further insights into the role of leadership in the prevention of future catastrophic incidence while promoting both safety and enhanced performance. KEYWORDS: Inclusive, leadership, organization, production, safety

Aggregated Technical Commercial and Collection Loss Mitigation Through a Smart Metering Application Strategy

The privatization exercise that led to the creation of 11 distribution companies (Discos) is yet to yield the result of meeting the electricity supply needs of Nigeria. It is in realization of this fact that the Federal Government of Nigeria recently made different proposals and regulations to increase efficiency, availability, and competitiveness within the power industry. This article establishes a technical gain ratio to measure the impact of scaling up smart metering on the aggregated technical commercial and collection (ATC&C) losses. The ATC&C loss is the difference between the amount of electricity received by a distribution company from the transmission company and the amount of electricity for which it invoices its customers plus the adjusted collections loss. To achieve this objective, reviews of historical data of the Discos ATC&C losses and customers’ metering records as published by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) for 2015, 2016, 2017, 2018, and 2020 were carried out. In addition, efforts were made to mathematically model the relationship between % metering and % ATC&C losses as this was the framework to help carry out effective forecasts and analyses of the study in order to show the impact level of the strategy employed. One of the salient technical contributions of this article was that it established that for every 1% increase in metering installation, there is a proportionate 0.8% decrease in ATC&C losses, provided all other factors responsible for technical and commercial losses remain constant. Consequently, improved ATC&C loss reduction would be achieved if Discos adopt a combination of other strategies that would ensure reduction in technical and commercial losses in addition to aggressive deployment of meter assets. However, in practice, factors causing technical and commercial losses are never constant as system components depreciate/burn out with time, energy theft, and pilferage, and meter tamper/bypass is on the increase daily; meter deployment is not aggressive enough to match utility customers’ growth. Hence, the adoption of combined modern strategies in addition to aggressive metering in tandem with customers’ growth has to be employed by Discos in a deliberate attempt to reduce ATC&C losses.

Impacts of FERC Order No. 2222 on Dairy Manure Processing in Wisconsin

The agricultural practice of spreading dairy manure to fertilize crop fields leads to widespread air and water pollution, due to uncontrolled release of greenhouse gases, nutrients, and pathogens. The associated environmental and health impacts can be mitigated by deploying manure processing (MP) systems that can capture methane to produce electricity and that facilitate nutrient management. Unfortunately, electricity rates available to MP systems in the United States (US) provide limited economic incentives to promote their deployment. Recent policy enacted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (Order 2222) enables distributed energy resource (DER) systems (such as MP systems) to participate in wholesale electricity markets. We present supply chain and market analyses in Wisconsin showing that this order can help activate an electricity bioeconomy that can help mitigating environmental and health impacts resulting from manure spreading. We estimate that this bioeconomy could generate up to $131 million in revenue for dairy farms annually while averting $39 million in greenhouse gas emissions and $182 million in nutrient emissions.

Controls on Exports of Nuclear Commodities and on Assistance to Foreign Nuclear Activities

Chapter 4 covers two related sets of U.S. government controls on nuclear-related items that flow from the Atomic Energy Act of 1954 and the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Act of 1978. One, administered by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), covers exports of nuclear hardware and nuclear materials. The other, called “Part 810” and administered by the National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) of the U.S. Department of Energy, covers assistance by U.S. persons (including transfers of nuclear-related technology) to foreign nuclear activities. The chapter explains: which items and activities are subject to the NRC and NNSA regulations; the basis and criteria for their restrictions; how to determine whether your commodity or activity is covered and, if so, whether you will need a license to export or reexport it; how to get a license if one is required; and the potential penalties for violating the rules. The chapter also explains how the NRC and NNSA rules relate to the regulatory regimes covered in other parts of the book.

An Empirical Study of Equity Incentive on the Stock Valuation of Tobacco Companies

Objectives: Since the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) issued the Measures for the Administration of Equity Incentives of Listed Companies, the equity incentives of A-share listed companies have become normalized, the discussion of the effect of the implementation of equity incentives on stock valuation can provide a reference for investors whether to choose listed companies with equity incentives for stock valuation. This paper uses python tool to select 30 A-share listed companies that formally started to implement equity incentives in 2018 and the proportion of equity incentives is between 4% and 6% as the sample, and uses cross-sectional data model for empirical analysis. The empirical results show that: first, the implementation of equity incentive in Chinese listed companies has a positive impact on stock valuation, and the impact of equity incentive on stock valuation is significantly better than that before implementation, and the incentive stocks have more investment value; Second, the conclusion is also suitable for Chinese tobacco related companies, which has important reference value for tobacco preference investors.

The Oriented Spray Cooling System for Heat Rejection and Evaporation

Spray ponds offer significant advantages over mechanical draft cooling towers including superior simplicity and operability, lower preferred power requirements, and lower costs. Unlike a conventional spray pond in which spray nozzles are arranged in a flat bed and water is sprayed upward, the Oriented Spray Cooling System (OSCS) is an evolutionary spray pond design in which nozzles are mounted on spray trees arranged in a circle and are tilted at an angle oriented towards the center of the circle. Therefore, each nozzle is exposed to essentially ambient air as water droplets drag air into the spray region while the warm air concentrated in the center of the circle rises. Both of these effects work together to increase air flow through the spray region. Increased air flow reduces the local wet-bulb temperature of the air in the spray pattern, promoting heat transfer and more efficient cooling. The authors have developed analytical models to predict the thermal performance of the OSCS that are based on classical heat and mass transfer and kinetic vector relationships for spherical water droplets that rely only on generic experimental thermal performance data. The model is not limited in application with regard to spray pressure or nozzle spacing or orientation and is not limited by droplet size considerations. The paper compares the predicted performance of the OSCS with full-scale field test results that were measured in compliance with Nuclear Regulatory Commission requirements at the Columbia Generating Station where the ultimate heat sink is two OSCS.

Lone Star Wars: LNGs, communities and globalization versus local resistance in the Laguna Madre region of coastal South Texas

Purpose This study aims to theoretically contextualize the liquefied natural gas (LNG) issue using Bauman and Debord. More generally, this research provides a theoretical and qualitative context to understand the LNG issue in discussions of environmental management, globalization and local government. Design/methodology/approach This study uses Boje’s narrative case study approach to analyze the politics around localized resistance movements to LNG production in the Rio Grande Valley (RGV). Specifically, this study examines the data collected from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, personal interviews and public declarations (newspapers, blogs, social media) to create an historiographical account of LNGs in the RGV to analyze the Laguna Madre resistance case regarding three LNG companies. Findings The development of LNG in Laguna Madre has been at least temporarily halted. This is considered partially because of the pandemic, reduced demand and local resistance. In the Laguna Madre case, controlling narratives by the LNG resistance appeared to be an essential component of their overall strategy. Originality/value Understanding the impact of energy development locally and globally becomes increasingly important, as access to fossil fuels become more limited. This case helps understand the overall adverse actions taken by LNGs to exploit communities, individuals and the environment while illustrating practical tools being used to resist the less desirable elements of energy development.