It is a common statement made in Nigeria by our leaders saying Nigerians are benefiting for more stable and reliable power supply. They go as far as saying people are celebrating about the more stable power supply [Minister Nebo, Vanguard August 11, 2013].

How are we able to validate these claims about a more stable system? How is this reliability actually measured and reported to the Nigerian People? Is the Power system really getting reliable or are we mastering the art of scheduling power supply to loads across the country to provide the illusion of actual increased stability and reliability?

System Average Interruption Duration Index (SAIDI) and System Average Interruption Frequency Index (SAIFI) are two of many reliability indices used internationally by Power companies to measure and track their reliability performances. SAIDI measures the average duration of power outages per customer/resident in one year and SAIFI measures the average number of times a customer/resident experiences an outage or power loss in one year.

The median SAIDI value for North American utilities is approximately 1.50 hours [IEEE Standard 1366-1998]. This can be interpreted as a customer or resident had experienced an average of 1.5hours without power in one year.

The median SAIFI value for North American utilities is approximately 1.1 [IEEE Standard 1366-1998]. This can be interpreted as a customer or resident had experienced an average of one outage or power loss in one year.

In Nigeria, can we even state that we have an average of 24 hours without power in one year compared to 1.5 hours median outage experienced in North America? Can we state that we have an average of only 10 power outages/losses in one year compared to the median single outage experienced by North American utilities? It is clear that we are very far from the above North American SAIDI & SAIFI benchmarks. It will not be an easy or short road to reach actual international reliability benchmarks. However, we should start by setting achievable reliability goals, targets and timeframes to track and report to the Nigerian people about the real reliability performances on our power system as we make the required expansions in our Power Sector. Statements like we are experiencing more reliable power provide no value. Reliability performance should be reported with appropriate metrics and benchmarks so the Nigerian people can be made aware if there is actual increased reliability on the system. It is impossible to manage what you cannot measure.

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