Natural Gas Pricing

The Comission Federal de Electricidad (CFE), Mexico's national electric utility, generates, transmits and distributes electricity to the whole country. During the oil boom of the 1970s, CFE was able to make sufficient investments in the power sector to meet the 6 to 7 percent annual growth in demand; however, when the price of oil fell in the 1980s, investments in the power sector were greatly reduced and the power system deteriorated throughout the decade. By 1989, conditions had reached a point where substantial investments had to be made or the system's reliability would suffer badly. The power system might even fail to meet new demand, resulting in power shortages. In the power distribution area, the focus of this case study, the deferred investment caused overloading of the distribution substations which resulted in substantial energy losses and power failures. New transformer substations and distribution equipment were needed to mitigate these problems. In addition, during 1990-94, as the monopoly provider of electricity, CFE had to install additional substations, distribution lines, hookups, and meters to provide electricity to about 700,000 new customers each year. More than 1 million customers were illegally connected to the power supply. This pilfering of electricity became a severe financial drain on CFE. About 1 million meters were needed to eliminate this financial loss, along with increased efforts to detect pilferage. CFE also faced problems in relation to the efficiency of billing and collection from its metered customers, * ⋅ This study has benefited greatly from the assistance of a number of people. Alfred Thieme was a constant source of advice and encouragement. Nisangul Ceran and Luis E. Gutierrez spent much time to provide us with essential information from the World Bank's archives and to give us a better understanding of the electricity sector in Mexico. The collaboration of our colleagues,

Background: A cost reflective tariff eliminates the need for government subsidies to make up the difference between the prevailing tariff and the actual cost of supply by reflecting the true cost of producing power. However, in order to provide adequate cost reflective tariff, there must be a balanced understanding between the electricity producers and the users in terms of electricity production and supply. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to investigate the relationship between cost reflective electricity tariff and distribution in Nigeria. Objective: The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of cost reflective tariff on the Nigerian electricity supply industry and to investigate the relationship between cost reflective tariff and electricity distribution using multiple regression analyses. Methods: The data used in this study were secondary data generated and extracted from the World Bank indicators (2020), CBN statistical bulletin (2020) and...

Electric energy which is placed on top of the energy stratification and its uses at home, industry, agriculture, and in transport is indispensable. Tariffs are ways in which electric utilities derive their income from customers through effective electricity bills. This paper examines and analyses the energy billing in a deregulated economy in terms of its benefits for sustainable development especially for its capacity in eliminating subsidies, improvement in public financing and sale of assets. It as well shows its improvement of macro performance in generation of energy, transmission and distribution system. Moreover, electric energy and billing are cost effective as well as competitive with improved service to consumers while at the same time encouraging private investment, lower consumers' tariffs. various tariffs system such as flat demand rate, straight rate, block rate, Hopkinson rate, Doherty rate, Wright rate and further proposed two important tariffs demand rate known as Zarma, and Otokpa demand rate. Recommendations were made and finally conclusion were also made that energy is very sensitive to either remain in the hand of government or private alone. Both have a role to play collectively.

This study investigates stakeholders' perception of the sustainability of Nigeria's MYTO pricing methodology vis-à-vis government's electricity efficiency objectives. Using a five-point Likert questionnaire, data was collected and analysed via descriptive and regression analyses. The results indicate that 96% of the variations in electricity pricing is accounted for by government's electricity efficiency objectives of acceptability, accessibility and availability. The study concludes that Nigeria's MYTO pricing regime is sustainable. Similarly, the study concludes that there is policy inadequacy in addressing fundamental issues of end users' lack of awareness of pricing system and mistrust between industry players. Although these conclusions have met the objectives of the study, the study recommends further research on the impact of subsidy on sustainability of electricity pricing methodology.

Background: A cost reflective tariff eliminates the need for government subsidies to make up the difference between the prevailing tariff and the actual cost of supply by reflecting the true cost of producing power. However, in order to provide adequate cost reflective tariff, there must be a balanced understanding between the electricity producers and the users in terms of electricity production and supply. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to investigate the relationship between cost reflective electricity tariff and distribution in Nigeria. Objective: The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of cost reflective tariff on the Nigerian electricity supply industry and to investigate the relationship between cost reflective tariff and electricity distribution using multiple regression analyses. Methods: The data used in this study were secondary data generated and extracted from the World Bank indicators (2020), CBN statistical bulletin (2020) and supplemented with data from Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (2020) that covered the period of the study for the 6 states in southwest. Two models were specified to address the two specific research objectives. The first model sought to test the impact of cost reflective tariff on the Nigeria electricity supply industry using multiple regression analyses and the other to investigate the factors that contributed to the price of electricity determinants in Nigeria. Results: The results showed that the cost of electricity production contributed significantly to the quantity of electricity distributed and the model produced R-square and adjusted R-square values of 91.16% and 87.38%, respectively. Conclusion: The results obtained in this work is useful for electricity producers and government for proper planning.

Petroleum Supply Chain is one of the most important and sophisticated managing missions in both developing and developed countries. Nowadays, environmental pollution is another critical factor in designing the petroleum supply chain. This importance encourages the governments to minimize the amount of environmental pollution and maximize their obtained profit simultaneously, by enacting required legislations on the transportation modes and the refineries. Considering maximizing the job creation and each stakeholder's profit, and minimizing the emission of CO 2 and other greenhouse gases at the same time is called Sustainable Petroleum Supply Chain which has been paid little attention despite its significance. Therefore, the modelling of petroleum supply chain considering sustainability and pricing issues is investigated for the first time in this work and a sustainable competitive petroleum supply chain (SCPSC) model is developed to minimize pollution while maximizing the profits and job creation. This problem is a two level model. The first level in SCPSC is the competition between the supply chains of the government and the private sectors, which is modelled by the game theory approach including Nash and Stackelberg equilibria. The optimal price and demand for each supply chain determined in the first level are considered as the second level parameters. In the second level, the optimal values of the decisions in designing the petroleum supply chain will be obtained by solving Mixed Integer Linear Programming (MILP) under the mentioned three objective functions. Finally, the proposed model is applied to a real world case in the national Iranian oil company (NIOC). Based on the results of the Stackelberg equilibrium, the government profits increase by 11.12% while that of the private sector decreases by 25.4 and 28.11%. Increasing in the government profit is due to increased demand provided by government. The results show that the whole profit of the petroleum supply chain in Nash equilibrium is 9.8% more than that in the Stackelberg equilibrium.

Background: A cost reflective tariff eliminates the need for government subsidies to make up the difference between the prevailing tariff and the actual cost of supply by reflecting the true cost of producing power. However, in order to provide adequate cost reflective tariff, there must be a balanced understanding between the electricity producers and the users in terms of electricity production and supply. It is against this backdrop that this study seeks to investigate the relationship between cost reflective electricity tariff and distribution in Nigeria. Objective: The aim of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of cost reflective tariff on the Nigerian electricity supply industry and to investigate the relationship between cost reflective tariff and electricity distribution using multiple regression analyses. Methods: The data used in this study were secondary data generated and extracted from the World Bank indicators (2020), CBN statistical bulletin (2020) and...

The oil sector has dictated the pace and structure of growth of the Nigerian economy since 1970. Oil contributed over US$391.6 billion to government revenue between 1970 and 2005. This accounted for 77.1 per cent of total government revenue over the period. Out of this amount, US$118.4 billion or 30.2 per cent was earned between 1999 and 2005. Similarly, the Nigerian economy has earned over US$593.6

Natural Gas Price Controls starts with an estimation of the benefits of price liberalisation vs. regulation, based on the evolution of European markets. However, the focus of the book is on existing price controls that still prevail worldwide at least in end user markets. An overview of theoretical issues and their relevance for the implementation of gas price regulation is provided, including infrastructure cost assessment, scarcity premiums, rates of return, and the role of price discrimination towards social and environmental policy objectives. The latter part of the book includes the description and analysis of historical and recent case studies, highlighting successful approaches as well as failures and the distortions they triggered. Featured countries are Algeria, Egypt, France, Indonesia, Israel, Italy, the Netherlands, New Zealand, Nigeria and USA. A final Chapter compares the main cases and draws lessons for regulators, policy makers and industry

A population’s standard of living has a special and important place in the concept of human development. Ultimately, the higher the standard of living of a population, the greater the chance for real human development, other things being equal. The standard of living in its most general sense is nothing more than a certain level of satisfaction of the population’s needs because no society and no country is able to fully meet the needs of all people. The standard of living of a population cannot be expressed by any one indicator taking in both quantitative and qualitative aspects. The standard of living of a population is characterized and reflected by a system of indicators in which there is a special significance for such indicators, such as the needs of households, real incomes, private consumption, and socio-psychological satisfaction. However, in order to quantify exactly the level of standard of living, the degree of satisfaction of the needs, wealth, poverty and income stratif...

This study investigates the impact of the fuel subsidy removal on the socio-economic development in Nigeria. Using a price pass-through model, the study employed the error correction model to investigate both the short and long run impact of fuel subsidy removal on socio-economic development in Nigeria using data from 1980 to 2012. The test for trend variability (unit root) to determine the stability of data was done using the Augmented Dickey Fuller and Phillip-Perron test. The study therefore discovered that the fuel subsidy removal does not have short run impact on the social well-being of Nigerians. However, the long run impacts of this policy tells a sterling story, as it was revealed that the deregulation of the downstream sector will ultimately leads to future economic development of the country. This result is therefore consistent with theoretical and some empirical findings that removal of distortions and market efficiency results in economic growth. It is however recommend...

This study investigates the impact of the fuel subsidy removal on the socio-economic development in Nigeria. Using a price pass-through model, the study employed the error correction model to investigate both the short and long run impact of fuel subsidy removal on socio-economic development in Nigeria using data from 1980 to 2012. The test for trend variability (unit root) to determine the stability of data was done using the Augmented Dickey Fuller and Phillip-Perron test. The study therefore discovered that the fuel subsidy removal does not have short run impact on the social well-being of Nigerians. However, the long run impacts of this policy tells a sterling story, as it was revealed that the deregulation of the downstream sector will ultimately leads to future economic development of the country. This result is therefore consistent with theoretical and some empirical findings that removal of distortions and market efficiency results in economic growth. It is however recommend...

In Hungary, regulated energy prices fell by a quarter in 2013–2014 due to a state intervention. The objective of this article is to measure the effects of this change on the Hungarian residential energy consumption and assess the rationale, the policy context and other consequences of such an intervention. We decompose residential energy-use change in 2010–2018. We calculate 13.2 PJ of excess consumption relating to the programme, and find that the higher income deciles benefited the most from the lower prices compared to low-income households using market-priced lower-quality fuels and living in inefficient homes. The intervention lacked a strong policy background. The energy policy documents were later adjusted to the situation and finally the programme was linked to energy poverty. We point to price-setting failures and discrepancies between energy-efficiency goals and measures as well as negative effects of these and the programme itself. In the future, the policy emphasis should be on energy efficiency and supporting those really in need.

This article investigates the long run relationship between energy consumption and the economic growth in Nigeria from the period of 1985 to 2010. However, the study make use of secondary data analysis of ordinary least square method of Multiple regression analysis and the objectives of the study is to examine whether energy consumption brings economic growth in Nigeria and also to examine the long run effect of energy consumption on growth in Nigeria. Moreover, the results revealed that Petroleum, Electricity are positively related to Nigeria economic growth while coal and Gas shows that there is a negative relationship with Nigerian economic growth. However, the study conclude that that increased energy consumption is a strong determinant of economic growth having an implicit effect in lagged periods and both an implicit and explicit effect on the present period in Nigeria. Thus, the study recommends that the energy sector should be given more relevance even by exploiting the opportunities laden in the sector to increase economic growth.

The estimated billing system for electricity was introduced in Nigeria by the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) in 2012 for billing customers without meters or with faulty or inaccessible meters. But instead of following the guidelines and formula provided by NERC for the estimation, the electricity Distribution Companies (DisCos) resorted to billing these customers arbitrarily and frustrated efforts by NERC to ensure the proper metering of electricity consumers. This research evaluates the incentive, which makes the DisCos in Nigeria prefer the estimating billing system to a much more efficient smart prepaid metering system. To carry out the research, four Enugu Electricity Distribution Company (EEDC) customers were selected. The estimated bills of these customers, which they received before they got smart prepaid meters, were compared with their prepaid meter bills for an equal period. EEDC was found to be over-billing these customers under the estimated billing sy...

The Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) is the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) pricing framework for determining the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) pricing model. One of the objectives of the NERC's MYTO pricing model is to ensure regulated electricity end user tariff without compromising return on investment. Achieving this objective is imperative to attract investors in the growing Nigerian electricity market. However, NESI has hitherto been faced with challenges ranging from its inability to provide sufficient power to its customers to not being viable enough to provide return on capital invested. In this paper, sensitivity analysis of power plant operation and performance parameters on the cost of electricity (CoE) generation using MYTO (power generation) pricing model were evaluated. Thermodynamic modeling and simulation of an open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) was carried out to augment scarce data on power plant performance and operation in Nigeria. Sensitivity analysis was carried out using probabilistic method based on Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) implemented in commercial software (@ Risk®). The result highlighted sensitivity of the model input parameters to cost of electricity generation based on technical and financial assumptions of MYTO model. Seven most influential parameters affecting generation cost were identified. These parameters and their correlation coefficients are given as: 1) foreign exchange rate, 0.76; 2) cost of fuel, 0.51; 3) thermal efficiency, −0.23; 4) variable operation and maintenance cost, 0.22; 5) fixed operating and maintenance cost, −0.03; 6) capacity factor, −0.02; and 7) average capacity degradation, 0.01. Based on the gas turbine engine and input parameter distributions statistics for this study, the generation cost lies between 9.84 to 15.45 ₦/kWh and the probabilities of CoE within these values were established.

The Nigerian power sector reform is necessitated by the chronically poor performance of the sector and has as its compass the 2005 Electric Power Sector Reform Act and the Road Map for Power Sector Reform 2010. Implementing the reform has resulted in significant progress that includes unbundling and privatization of the long-standing government-owned monopoly in the power sector and a move towards achieving a cost-reflective electricity tariff. This chapter provides a comprehensive assessment of the reform, isolating the major challenges facing it, and focusing on political economy developments surrounding regulatory, institutional, legislative, and fiscal issues, with achieving energy security and mainstreaming clean renewable energy being the main theme running through the analysis.

The Multi Year Tariff Order (MYTO) is the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) pricing framework for determining the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI) pricing model. One of the objectives of the NERC's MYTO pricing model is to ensure regulated electricity end user tariff without compromising return on investment. Achieving this objective is imperative to attract investors in the growing Nigerian electricity market. However, NESI has hitherto been faced with challenges ranging from its inability to provide sufficient power to its customers to not being viable enough to provide return on capital invested. In this paper, sensitivity analysis of power plant operation and performance parameters on the cost of electricity (CoE) generation using MYTO (power generation) pricing model were evaluated. Thermodynamic modeling and simulation of an open cycle gas turbine (OCGT) was carried out to augment scarce data on power plant performance and operation in Nigeria. Sensitivity analysis was carried out using probabilistic method based on Monte Carlo simulation (MCS) implemented in commercial software (@ Risk®). The result highlighted sensitivity of the model input parameters to cost of electricity generation based on technical and financial assumptions of MYTO model. Seven most influential parameters affecting generation cost were identified. These parameters and their correlation coefficients are given as: 1) foreign exchange rate, 0.76; 2) cost of fuel, 0.51; 3) thermal efficiency, −0.23; 4) variable operation and maintenance cost, 0.22; 5) fixed operating and maintenance cost, −0.03; 6) capacity factor, −0.02; and 7) average capacity degradation, 0.01. Based on the gas turbine engine and input parameter distributions statistics for this study, the generation cost lies between 9.84 to 15.45 ₦/kWh and the probabilities of CoE within these values were established.

ABSTRACT Constant power supply is the hallmark of a developed economy. Any nation whose energy need is epileptic in supply prolongs her development and risks losing potential investors. Nigeria, a country of over 160 million people has for the past 33 years of establishment of the National Electric Power Authority (NEPA) - an agency empowered with the electricity generation, transmission and distribution witnessed frequent and persistent outages. Presently, the federal government has embarked on power sector reform with the intention of improving the above unpalatable scenario and in turn reducing the scope of monopoly control of the nations’ power industry. This paper therefore looks at the overall power sector and it’s reforms as well as evaluates its opportunities and challenges; while advocating introduction and effective checks and management of NIPPs and IPPs as a step in the right direction.

Adequate power supply constitutes the nucleus of operations and subsequently the engine of growth for all sectors of the economy. Despite the abundance of electricity generation sources in Nigeria, electricity distribution network and voltage profile are very poor resulting to more that 50 percent of the populace living without electricity supply. To salvage the electricity problem, the power sector has gone through some reforms, the major one being the enactment of the Electric Power Sector Reform Act of 2005. This was intended to restructure the electricity market from monopoly to a more competitive structure. This study is therefore undertaken to empirically evaluate the impacts of the reforms on electricity supply growth in the country. This study is based on the elementary supply theory. It covers from 1981 to 2015. Econometric approach for the study relies on time series data regression. The study adopted the contemporary econometric approach of error correction mechanism (ECM). The results showed that all the variables were stationary and statistically significant. There exist a unique long-run equilibrium relationship between all the variables of the model and so, cointegrated and normalized coefficients were reported. ECM results revealed the speed of adjustment of 92.1 percent between the short-run and the long-run behaviors of electricity supply with its independent variables. From the analysis, reforms' coefficient (REF) had a positive sign but statistically insignificant. The other variables, electricity price (ELP), government investment in the power sector (GOVINV), annual rainfall (RAIN) and per capita GDP (PCGDP) conformed to apriori expectations in terms of sign and were statistically significant. The study concludes that the present reform efforts in the power sector will bring great improvements in the power sector of the country if properly harnessed. From the results, the study recommends that government should totally transfer ownership in all electricity production and supply chain to the private investors and only monitor or regulate the market.

2 According to the World Bank, the transition from publicly owned to largely owned power sector did not bring the expected outcomes. See the Power Sector Recovery Program document. Report No.124328. 3 Some of the countries visited were London, New York, Johannesburg and Dubai. 4 Nigerian banks were said to have been exposed to the tune of N750bn to the Nigerian power sector privatization programme. See Vanguard Newspapers ' Nigerian Banks Invested N750bn in Power Sector Since Privatisation' (Online) https://www.vanguardngr.com/2014/08/nigerian-banksinvested-n750bn-power-sector-since-privatisation-adeleye/ Last accessed on 15 th of November, 2018.

The present social and economic conditions in Slovakia participate to the behaviour diff erentiation of individual households on the consumer market. It is possible to speak about changes both in the posi ti ve and negative sense of word. The positive impact can be observed in the inter-annual increase of the population revenues especially in the years 2006 and 2007 (by 13.86 % and 12.05 %) in connection with greater possibilities of the employment growth and employment on the work market of the EU member countries. The negative manifestations can be seen within the low income household groups because they represent a great part of households in Slovakia. In spite of the fact that the fi nal consumptions and expenditures of private households increased from 56.3 % in 2000 to 58.3 % in 2005 and it was manifested in GDP, and the growth of the population standard purchasing power increased from € 5400.00 to € 7700.00 per inhabitant (Eurostat 08), Slovakia is within the EU-27 countries at the lower bound of the achieved purchasing power standard (the Eurozone average is € 14000.00). Over the decennial period (1998-2007) the average annual monetary revenue increase of private households was 7.62 % and in 2007 it represented a nominal value of € 4158.269 and in the real expression it was € 4105.009 per a household member. In the past years the economic development in Slovakia (GDP growth by 10.4 % and the fi nal household consumption by 7.1 % in 2007) enabled, at the average annual income growth by 7.62 %, an increase of consumption expenditures by 6.59 % for foodstuff s and for non alcoholic beverages by 3.66 %. This development is confi rmed by income-demand analysis results. monetary income, foodstuff s expenditures, growth coeffi cients, income elasticity, linear and non linear models (Working and Tőrnquist function

Distribution companies in Nigeria since privatization have been repeatedly faced with unappetizing menus to choose between the rock and a hard place on serving their customers efficiently. Customers on the other hand have been displeased with both the distribution companies and government due to the huge economic losses inadequate electricity supply has brought onto the economy. This study analyzes the challenges faced by distribution companies from a Political, Economic, Social, and Technological (PEST) view, providing solutions which are implementable and would definitely solve considerably many of the challenges in the sector including the wide metering gap, energy accountability, energy theft, cost reflective tariffs, network expansion, technical asset audit and many others. Least square regression analysis was used to determine the governing equation behind the multi-year tariff order MYTO 2015-2021 for Ikeja Electric, certain parameters such as the exchange rate and the aggregate technical commercial and collection losses were then adjusted to reflect the current realities to get a picture of what the actual tariff should look like according to the MYTO. Various papers, articles, and reports from NERC, TCN, System Operator, and other players in the power sector were critically analyzed. These analyses showed that setting the tariffs right, closing the metering gap through a sustainable program, improving on customer relationships, and using technology to audit, plan, and manage network expansion or rehabilitation would increase the reliability of electricity supply, reduce aggregate technical, commercial and collection losses in the distribution companies which will have a tremendous effect on the power sector and the economy at large.

The significance of natural gas appears as a competitive substitute for crude oil. Therefore, for many years, fuel switching between natural gas and crude oil made natural gas prices closely aligned with crude oil. On the other hand, the price of natural gas for end-users varies greatly across Europe, Asia, and Africa. There was an upward trend in energy commodity prices since 2000, but with the surge in supply coming from unconventional oil and gas resources in North America, the trend in natural gas prices has become downward in recent years due to the many reasons. This paper examines and investigates the global market of natural gas including previous, current, and future prices and demand. Additionally, it shows the effect of political and economic issues on natural gas prices and demand during the period from 2014 to 2020. The paper shows and interprets the expectations of the natural gas market until 2040.

The Study Examined The Public Private Partnership Policy In Nigeria As A Panacea To The Development And Management Of Electricity In Nigeria. The Study Was Descriptive And It Is Aimed At Evolving An Alternative Policy That Will Ensure The Sustainable Development Of Electricity In Nigeria. The Heavy Presence Of Government In Energy Development Did Not Seem To Encourage Desirable Development In The Sector. The SAP, Vision 2010, And NEP 1999 Proposed Deregulatory Approach Relying On Private Sector Led Development Approach For The Development Of Utilities. The NEEDS 2004 Clearly And Specifically Proposes The PPP Approach Under The Deregulatory Devices. PPP As A Contractual Arrangement Between The Public And Private Sectors Operators Constitutes An Approach To Achieving Well Defined And Shared Objectives In A Well-managed, Cost-effective, Efficient And Sustainable Manner, Hence, Is Considered In The Paper. Findings Suggest That Forms Of The PPP Are Given For Consideration To Bail Nigeria Out Of The Impacts Of Poor Quality, Unreliable And Limited Availability Of Power-supply, Presumed Partly Due To Government Led-development Approach. The Paper Recommends Among Others The Encouragement Of Private Sector Participation In The Provision Of Energy Infrastructure Within The PPP Framework.

As Turkey and Gazprom reach a deal on part of a strategically important Black Sea pipeline, Turkish state entity Botaş is reportedly to receive a US$1 billion payment from the Russian company to settle a gas-pricing dispute that was being heard in arbitration in Stockholm.

Speaking at an election rally in the eastern province of Erzurum on 26 May, President Recep Tayyip Erdogan of Turkey told reporters that Botaş and Gazprom Export had reached an agreement for a 10.25% discount on Russian natural gas purchased in 2015 and 2016.

As a result of the neoliberal economic philosophical doctrines that spread in the 1980s, decreasing attention was paid by researchers and other experts in the European Union to developments in households' financial position and consumption in boosting economic growth. This is despite the fact that the examples set by the increasingly faster growing countries, especially India, China, Brazil, Mexico and South Africa, seem to markedly confirm that developments in incomes and household consumption have an increasing role in the acceleration of economic growth. As globalization and the 2008 economic crisis undermined the financial position of households in the European Union, and thus also in Hungary, and a growing part of the population was thrust into increasingly deeper poverty, so people started to become once again aware of the actual consequences of deterioration in households' financial position on developments in economic growth. Having recognised all this, the Hungarian government fundamentally altered Hungarian economic policy. Tax hikes were replaced by tax cuts, and previous high taxes were replaced by tax credits to facilitate households' position. In contrast to the previous austerity packages, actions were taken with the primary aim to increase the income left with households. This is also the purpose of the utility cost cut procedure. In this framework, long-term changes were performed with the aim to allow the government ensure public services in the field of waste water management, drinking water, natural gas and electricity supply, district heating, waste incineration and mass catering on a non-profit basis, in order to increase the income

Despite the abundant forms of primary energy available in Nigeria, the country has grappled with various energy shortage and erratic power supply for decades. Power can be out for more than 6 hours a day and homes rely on diesel generators for power supply. Businesses and industries have sought ways to develop their own source of power to keep their business afloat amid the darkness. They mostly rely on diesel engines which are expensive to maintain and this drives up the costs of production.

This problem has caused untold underdevelopment of the sector, subsequently leading to an economic downturn of the country. Energy is critical to the development of any economy. Most industrial economies in the world thrived on adequate and sustainable energy production to achieve industrialization. Nigeria no doubt is endowed with huge amounts of non-renewable and renewable forms of energy. It boasts of about 5 trillion Cubic feet of natural gas which currently places the country as the ninth natural gas producer in the world. The National Bureau of Statistics has estimated that Nigeria has about 37.2 billion barrels of proven oil reserves and about 209.439 million tons of recoverable short coal. In terms of renewable, Nigeria has a considerable amount of sunlight all through the year and the Northern Nigeria is ideal for siting wind turbines.

Successive governments have tried to fix this problem, but the issue of energy production in Nigeria has been beleaguered with corruption, economic policy mismatch and what Isser calls rhetorical appeals to models. The government has initiated reforms in solving some erratic energy development in the country by unbundling the vertically integrated utilities in the energy sector, such as NEPA but the yield has been nothing short of abysmal. Some of the reforms introduced have made matters worse as industry watchers are confused as to whether it is a monopoly or competition that is being practiced.

With the regulator’s over-bearing policies and its somewhat complicated implementation, the sector has not grown or become fully competitive. The era of government fixing tariffs of energy products has not aided the growth of the sector. The government's indecision as to practice a monopoly or open the markets to competition has made matters worse and by extension has affected the economy of the country seeing that energy production is directly connected with economic development.

This article looks at the energy sector in Nigeria specifically, power sector and explores the extent of the parallel practice of monopoly and competition and it's effect on the economy. This study will make a case for the need to develop a sustainable regulatory framework to reflect competitive outcomes and sustainable practice

ABSTRACT
This study is a holistic analysis of the power sector. Taking a look at the natural gas and the electricity sector, it attempts to understand the events and issues influencing the demand and supply and by extension the pricing of electricity in the country. It was identified that although
gas export (LNG and Pipeline) provides high returns to the government through tax receipts and dividends for equity stake, there is need to look beyond just rent seeking, as there are broader strategic benefits that could be attained with the domestic utilization of gas, especially with
respect to power supply.
Wading into the argument for natural gas price regulation on one hand and pricing deregulation on the other hand, the study sought to find the implication of changes in natural prices for electricity consumers via the instrument of electricity tariff. This relationship taking into consideration, electricity net consumption and electricity distribution loss was investigated, adopting the Vector Error Correction Model (VECM) in the analysis.
The result shows that electricity tariff is positively related to natural gas prices in the short run, implying that an increase in gas prices have an instantaneous effect on electricity tariff. The long run relationship was also significant but the coefficient displayed a negative relationship
indicating that over time there is a divergence in the pricing relationship.
This study confirms that there is a significant relationship between electricity tariff and gas pricing. Thus a move away from a regulated natural gas pricing regime would have an adverse instantaneous implication for electricity consumers. However, owing to the divergence of natural gas pricing from electricity tariffs in the long run, such effect is expected to be ameliorated and reversed as the adjustment mechanism of the relationship is set in motion.
Noting that competitive market pricing tends to bring about more fluctuations in the price levels, it was pointed out that policy makers have to make a choice with respect to whether they are interested in the short run effect characterized by a hike in the electricity tariff, which could brew considerable level of negative socio-political sentiments, against the long run economic merit.

Access to electricity is vital for economic development. Developing countries around
the world have made various effort to improve electrcity access. In order to improve electrcity access,
the obstacles need to be properly identified. Nigeria’s electrcity access have been low for a very long
time with no improvement in sight. This paper examined the obstacles hindering the improvement of
electricity access in Nigeria. The obstacles identified includes; low efficiency and performance,
security of fuel source for power generation, data inadequacy, regulatory barriers, lack of institutional
arrangement, poor grid structure, delapidated transmission and distribution network, low financial
investment, lack of policy and project continuity. A way forward was presented in order to improve
electricity access in Nigeria.

Nigeria has been contributing significantly towards economic development efforts of the country for the past two decades. Natural gas, whose production in association with crude oil, started around the same time, is, however, yet to play any significant role. The capital intensive nature of gas supply systems coupled with the high level of subsidization of alternative fuels within the domestic energy market are partly responsible for the low use of this resource within the Nigerian energy system. Using an energy supply model, MESSAGE II, the authors show that an optimal structure of the country's energy system should lead to a 19-fold increase in the utilization of the gas resources between 1980 and 2010. They conclude that current efforts of government in putting into place gas transportation and distribution facilities in the country and the gradual removal of subsidies on petroleum product prices are necessary conditions for such a growth.

Nigeria’s Natural Gas Reserves has determined by The Department of Petroleum Resources (DPR) is estimated to be about 600 trillion cubic feet (tcf). Nigeria tops the largest gas reserve in Africa and assumes the 8th position in the world. Most of the gas reserves were discovered during the exploration for oil. It is of high grade quality: almost 0% sulphur & rich in NGLs, therefore, it costs less to both produce and process it. Considering the fact that Nigeria has an estimated population of over 160 million people, this paper will address the issue that natural gas pricing should not be determined by the Federal Government but should be influenced by the forces of demand and supply.

The methodology involved would consider primarily the domestic market. Prices should settle at levels that make gas competitive at the margin with other fuels. This paper will also address the truth that natural gas infrastructures and transmission to end use consumers (Domestic use) and The Power Industry are put in place because it will serve as opportunities and incentives for both indigenous investors and private sectors to invest more in the development of natural gas industry in Nigeria. This will also cause more stability in the market, and hence more investors will be able to sign the deal.

Equity in natural gas pricing and infrastructures will bring about unequivocal levels of investment activities in Nigeria. This may be paralleled with what was seen in the early oil discovery. Increased number of gas investors in Nigeria will cause a growth in our broader national economy. This paper will address the fact that if the domestic market of demand and supply is allowed to determine the pricing of natural gas in Nigeria, it will bring about a wider national economy and an increased socio and domestic activities in the Country.

This paper will look into the report of “The Nigeria’s Gas 400% Utilization Increase by the year 2015” and the Nigeria’s Natural Gas Pricing Policy in relation to Investment incentives.

Integrated resource planning (IRP) for electric utilities involves management planning of supply as well as demand at the same time. In this paper, we develop a mixed integer linear programming model for IRP. The two key distinctions of this model are the incorporation of the forced outage cost and the inclusion of power deficit/surplus. The forced outage cost will more accurately reflect the true cost to a utility, and the power deficit/surplus features will more accurately represent the existence of power deficit/surplus in utilities nowadays. A comprehensive numerical example is provided for illustrative purposes.