Geo-spatial Assessment of small hydro potential in Abia state, South-Eastern Nigeria

Abstract

Incentives and policies aimed at diversifying Nigeria's energy mix for sustainable development, has made small hydropower (SHP) technology to become more popular in the country's energy and power industry. Despite the presence of water bodies and waterlines in Nigeria, the South-Eastern part of the country has not prioritized the use of these resources by using SHP potentials in policy creation and execution. In order to undertake a spatial analysis utilizing map data overlayed by shapefiles of water bodies, waterlines, road networks, and land use and land cover (LULC) data, the ArcGIS software was used in this paper to focus on the potentials of small hydropower in Abia State, located in the South Eastern part of Nigeria. After the map data was reclassified, multiple ring buffers were made for different proximities around the waterbodies and waterlines, and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) calculations were done to find the regions that would be suitable for small hydropower projects. A weighted score between 33 and 66, with an NDVI range of -0.018 to 0.015, indicated the presence of water bodies and built-up areas surrounding them, and an NDVI range of 0.015 to 0.14, with a weighted score within the range of 11-16, were found to be suitable areas in Osisioma Ngwa and Obingwa Local Government Areas respectively, with suitable elevations and hydraulic data for run-off the river schemes. The siting of hydropower plants was recommended to be within a multiple ring buffer distance of 200m and 5km from the waterlines and roads. This discovery also promotes the hybridization of renewable energy technologies with pumped hydro storage to reduce the capital costs for minigrids and dependability on the national grid in Abia state.