Geographical Information System Based Assessment of Small Hydropower Potential in South-Eastern Nigeria: A Case Study of Abia State

Abstract

Small hydropower technology has gained traction in the Nigerian energy and power ecosystem owing to incentives and reforms aimed at increasing Nigeria’s energy mix for sustainable development. Utilizing these opportunities through harnessing SHP potentials has not made it to the front burner during policy formulations and implementations in South-Eastern Nigeria despite the availability of water bodies and waterlines in the region. This paper focuses on the potentials of small hydropower in Abia state and utilized ArcGIS software to conduct spatial analysis using map data overlayed by shapefiles of water bodies, waterlines, road networks and Land use, Land Cover data (LULC). Multiple ring buffers were created for various proximities around the waterbodies and waterlines and Normalized Difference Vegetation Index calculations were done to determine suitability areas for small hydropower schemes after reclassification of the data. The analysis revealed suitability areas in Osisioma Ngwa and Obingwa Local Government areas with suitable elevations and hydraulics data for run off the river schemes and siting of hydropower plants within a multiple ring buffer distance between 200m to 5km from the waterlines and roads, having a weighted score between 33-66 with NDVI range of -0.018 –0.015 indicating the presence of water bodies and built-up areas around the water bodies with NDVI range of 0.015 – 0.14 and a weighted score within the range of 11-16 This revelation also encourages the hybridization of renewable energy technology using pumped hydro storage to improve the reliability and affordability of mini-grid solutions in Abia State and Nigeria at large.