According to the United Nation Development Programme, access to modern low-cost energy systems in developing countries is important in the realization of the globally agreed developmental goals, as well as the Millennium Development Goals, and sustainable development, which would assist in the reduction of poverty and to improve the conditions and quality of life for the greater part of the world’s population. Planners have suggested hybrid energy system for the electrification of rural areas worldwide. This study investigates the techno-economic and environmental effect of applying demand side management (DSM) activities to rural loads before design and sizing of hybrid energy systems for such community. Iporin a rural area in Ibadan, Nigeria which is endowed with an average daily solar radiation of 3.84 kWh/m²/day was taken as a case study. The total daily consumption which was initially estimated as 297 kWh/day after the application of DSM techniques dropped to 130 kWh/day representing a decrease of 56.80 %. Hybrid Optimization Model for Electric Renewables software was used for simulation and optimization purpose. Parameters such as DSM index, net present cost, and emission level were used in determining the effect of the DSM technique. Overall, the DSM activities proved to be more economical and environmental friendly.

Electricity Supply in Nigeria: Cost Comparison between Grid Power Tariff and Fossil-Powered Generator

The majority of the street lighting systems in Nigeria are predominantly composed of inefficient lighting fixtures powered either by the grid or diesel generators. Due to the epileptic nature of the grid and the fluctuations in diesel fuel pump prices, these methods for powering street lights are neither reliable nor sustainable. Use of energy-efficient lamps and photovoltaic (PV) panels has the tendency to reduce energy consumption and emissions. This study therefore presents a techno-economic analysis of deploying energy-efficient PV-powered street lighting systems using simple economic metrics. Environmental benefits of the proposed systems were also assessed by analyzing the reduction in CO₂ emission as well as the equivalent of oil saved. Relative to the existing grid-powered metal halide system, installation of LED PV-powered street light reduced energy consumption by at least 80%, while the grid-powered LED configuration reduced energy consumption by 80%. Economic analysis shows that the simple payback period (SPP) for the LED PV-powered technology was less than three years, while that of the grid-powered LED system was less than two years. The LED PV-powered technology had the highest CO₂ emission reduction of approximately 225 tonnes annually. Overall, street lighting using PV-powered and grid-powered LED is economically viable considering the payback time, net present value (NPV) and lifetime.

Purpose: There are numerous pressures on the cruise tourism industry as in the recent past, many well-established cruise tourism locations have been turning tourists and ships away due to overtourism. It is argued here that now is the time to consider the introduction of new destinations.Design/methodology/approach: The article is based on a literature review and discussions with experienced practitioners.Findings: The cruise industry has continued to evolve and the numbers of people engaging in cruise tourism had been on the increase globally until the Covid-19 pandemic. Medium-sized and mega ships with state-of-the-art facilities were in regular use. Despite the fact that there was a boom, the need for an extension of cruise lines destinations has arisen as there are numerous nations with exciting locations waiting to be discovered. Some of the limitations of such destinations include difficulty of access for large mega ships and infrastructure. A way forward can be found though by engaging local smaller boats/ships to transfer tourists to local destinations.Research limitations/implications: More work is needed to clarify issues such as (1) the readiness of proposed host communities to receive tourists; (2) terms and conditions of engagement of local boat companies; (3) cruising infrastructure development and (4) facilities upgrading that is compatible with international cruising standards.Originality/value: This paper highlights some of the issues being faced by cruise companies in well-established tourism destinations. It also emphasizes the need for new, hitherto undiscovered locations to accommodate a likely expansion in demand in the post-Covid-19 era.

Various system parameter variations occur during operations in several existing process industries. These parameter variations result in process shifts, thus, requiring adequate control strategies to compensate for these alterations, which consequently maintain desired system response. A paradigm is the coupled tank systems; in such systems, the level and flow of liquid must be adequately controlled to maintain the reaction equilibrium as well as to avoid spillage or equipment damage. The model reference adaptive control (MRAC) is an adaptive control strategy that creates a control law, subject to an adaptation gain, which causes the system’s plant to continuously track a reference model until a zero tracking error is achieved. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Lyapunov approaches were used to develop the adaptation mechanism, which is used to adjust the parameters in the control law. Conventionally, a fixed value is adopted as the adaptation gain; however, the adaption gain can also be determined heuristically. The fuzzy logic control was used to optimally determine the value of the adaptation gain, which thus results in the fuzzy-optimized MRAC (FOMRAC) system. Consequently, these schemes were comparatively analysed for the control of the flow and level of liquid in coupled two-tank systems, arranged in noninteracting and interacting fashions. Using MATLAB/Simulink, results depicted that the FOMRAC systems had faster settling times in comparison with the fixed adaptation gain MRAC systems. Overall, the FOMRAC system based on Lyapunov rule yielded the lowest performance indices values. In addition, the scheme completely eliminated the overshoot that resulted from the implementation of the other schemes for the control of the interacting process.