High electricity tariffs, unreliable power supply coupled with frequent power outages have the biggest impact on the growth of businesses in Nigeria and sub-Saharan Africa at large. Consequently, this hampers the GDP growth in this region. The World Bank Enterprise Survey, which included 139 economies, business owners identified electricity services as the fourth biggest obstacle to their commercial activities.

Obtaining a new electricity connection can be complicated by burdensome connection processes. Once connected to the grid, firms may face blackouts that constrain production or force businesses to resort to self-supply through generators at a significant cost.

This unbearable reality has led to many businesses seeking alternative power solutions in order to keep afloat and thanks to renewable power solutions, businesses are taking their power back. This was the case for a Nigerian telecommunications firm, PRIME. Faced with high costs of running diesel generators to power its facility due to unreliable power supply from the grid, PRIME turned to Energy First Limited (Energy First) to secure stable power and reduce diesel costs.

Energy First partnered with Gel Utility, an energy solutions provider, to deploy two solar hybrid systems (plus battery energy storage) for two of PRIME telecom sites in Lagos and Abuja, Nigeria.

For a business that operates 24 hours, PRIME mainly relied on a 30kVA generator for dependable power supply. However, challenges included:

• High cost of running diesel generator
• Volatile cost of diesel
• Impact on the environment – high carbon emissions

To overcome these challenges, Energy First and Gel Utility completed the installation of a 12kWp solar +35.5kWh storage. Now fully operational, the solar hybrid system comprises solar panels, charge controllers (MPPT) and battery storage system.

The project entailed complete installation and configuration of the automatic power switching system between the solar PV, battery storage and diesel generator. The solar PV solution installed has cut diesel engine operation hours significantly.