Comparative Analysis of Different Energy Sources for Power Generation in Nigeria

Abstract

Nigeria as a country depends on different energy sources for power generation. These include hydro, gas, steam, and coal. The various energy source utilization has some level of hazards that affects personnel, equipment, and even the environment. This work carried out a comparative analysis of different energy sources used for power generation in Nigeria and determined the level of hazards in terms of percentages from these sources sampling was carried out for the 200 plant workers and the Taro Yamane's formula was used to determine the sampling size. Data were collected and collated through a well-structured questionnaire that consisted of three sections. These include demographic data such as sex, age, educational level, etc. Data analysis was done using the Analytical Hierarchical Process (AHP) to determine the significance of hazards, It was found that from the demographic data, the majority of the staff are knowledgeable in the areas of both occupational hazards and the level of hazards exposures for various workers in the power plants (Gas turbine, hydropower plant, steam turbine, and coal-fired power plants). Further investigation was on the determination of power plants' reliability of occurrence of hazards for all the various plants under study. These hazards' probability of occurrence was classified into physical, biological, psychosocial, chemical, and ergonomics. For the gas plant, the results obtained for the physical, chemical, biological, ergonomics, and psychosocial are 69.64%, 42.86%, 55.36%, 46.43%, and 47.92%. For the hydropower plant, the results obtained for the physical, chemical, biological, ergonomics, and psychosocial are 68.57%, 41.43%, 61.43%, 54.64%, and 51.67%. For the steam turbine power plant the results obtained for the physical, chemical, biological, ergonomics, and psychosocial are 56.07%, 53.93%, 46.07%, 48.93%, and 39.29%. For the coal-fired plant, the results obtained for the physical, chemical, biological, ergonomics, and psychosocial are 50.00%, 50.00%, 57.14%, 42.86%, and 39.58%.