The African electricity deficit: Computing the minimum energy poverty line using field research in urban Nigeria

Energy poverty has long been defined in Developing-Rural or Western-Urban contexts. For the parts of the world classified as energy-poor, the Developing-Rural context is used, but the population density of the energy poor is much higher in the urban areas of developing states and this trend is expected to continue over the next 30 years. Moreover, computations of energy use in developing states have been based on electricity use in industrialized states. Drawing on extensive qualitative and quantitative methods, and using field research in Nigeria, this article describes a context-specific way to compute actual energy consumption, with electricity as the proxy. It proposes a minimum energy poverty line of 3068 kWh/cap yr (350 W/cap), which is sufficient to provide for basic needs in an urban household. With the energy poverty line representing an energy-secure household, three scenarios were modeled for name-plate capacity generation based on data collected: low-consumer, high-consumer, and energy-secure households. These scenarios were compared to current generation capacity for select sub-Saharan West African countries. I found that these countries all produced insufficient power to supply all their citizenry, even if the entire populace were comprised of low-energy consumers. I found no relationship between actual household electricity consumption and electricity bills.