Nigeria’s Rural Electrification Agency (REA) has signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) with five private developers to electrify rural areas via the delivery of a total of 1,265 MW of distributed renewable energy capacity. The companies should implement projects such as inter-connected minigrids, isolated minigrids and commercial and industrial (C&I) systems in both weak grid and off-grid locations. The developers involved are: A4&T Power Solutions with 315 MW, Privida Power (200 MW), Skipper Nigeria Ltd (250 MW), Euxwell Nigeria Ltd (250 MW), and Havenhill (250 MW). The partnership is expected to introduce new energy service models, facilitate the adoption of energy-efficient appliances and PUE devices, as well as bring in various value-added services.
The MoU comes as part of REA’s Distributed Access through Renewable Energy Scale-up (DARES) programme, and it also represents the introduction of the Renewable Energy Service Companies (RESCOs) model, which seeks to give developers a platform to become utility companies where they can attract investment to deploy mini grids.
Nigeria aims to have universal power access by 2030 and 30% of renewables in its power mix.