An expert in electrical engineering, Engr. Olice Kemenanabo has provided a fresh insight on the need to improve electricity power supply in the country.
Pointing out that the lingering challenges to the reliability, quality and vulnerability of the electric power system is as a result of improper evaluation and understanding of its dynamic and synchronous nature, the erudite electrical engineer who was for many years, the General Manager, Bayelsa State Electricity Board that has the only source of electricity supply for Bayelsa State under its watch, Kolo Creek Gas Turbine Station, Imiringi, Ogbia Local Government Area said the transmission facilities (switching and overhead) and the distribution networks have limitations in integrity, capacity and the ability to control system offset.
In a paper titled “Understanding Electric Power System” which he delivered at the inauguration of the second executive committee of the Port Harcourt Chapter of the Nigerian Institution of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (NIEEE), Kemenanabo who is presently the Special Adviser on Energy to the Bayelsa State Governor argued that since the world is defined by innovative technologies, Nigeria as a country cannot afford to be battling with what he called “obsolete technologies” that are no longer relevant even in the immediate past century and expect 21st century results.
His words: “While power utilities are deploying wide area monitoring, protection and control (WAMPAC) systems that enable new insight that prevent cascading outages, enable islanding, improve efficiencies and help operators manage complex real-time variances in the grid with precise time-synchronized measurements, we continue to move from pole to pole, distribution transformer to distribution transformer from the beginning to the end of feeders all for fault finding, diagnosis and clearing. The world according to one clergyman is a dangerous place to live not because of the wicked but because of those who lack the knowledge to make it a better place. This is the definition of a world that has bowed to ignorance in all ramifications and in its place embraced voluntary misfortune as a way of wishing away the endeavors of those that toiling endlessly to make the world a better place”.
He explained that the solution to achieving the electric power system of our dream is within the ambits of engineering, science and technology if only Nigeria can accept and adopt what he called a “square for square and round for round” approach.
