ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRICITY TRANSFORMERS IN JIMETA, YOLA-NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
In Nigeria, challenges of power sector include among others, insufficient power generation and inadequate or lack of quality apparatuses for efficient transmission and distribution of electric power to consumers. Jimeta, being one of the major cities in Adamawa State, has experienced increase in population and spatial expansion in recent years. This is partly due to the influx of the Internally Displaced Persons (IDPs) from the northern and parts of the central regions of the State as a result of the protracting Boko Haram insurgency. This has put pressure on the available social amenities including electricity thereby making power distribution facilities, such as transformers, spatially inadequate, resulting in unequal power distribution and overloads.
The aim of this study was analyze the spatial distribution of electricity transformers in Jimeta, Yola-North Local Government Area of Adamawa State, Nigeria. The study used data acquired with Hand-held GPS receiver, records of Yola Electricity Distribution Company (YEDC) and population census data, and mapped out the spatial distribution of electricity transformers in Jimeta using ArcGIS10.3 software. It further established the spatial pattern of point locations of transformers; created a geodatabase for all the transformers; assessed the level of compliance to the standards for transformer siting and also examined the extent to which population influenced their locations. Nearest Neighbour Analysis (NNA) was carried out to determine the pattern of distribution of transformer point locations. Projected population of the study area was used to produce a population density map over point locations of the transformers were overlaid. Buffer analysis in ArcGIS10.3 software was carried out to identify the location of transformers that violated the 10m setback standard of the NERC (2016).
The results showed that Jimeta had a total of 324 transformers distributed across the city in various capacities ranging from 25kVA to 1000kVA. About 0.93% of the transformers are 25kVA at the lower extreme while, 200kVA transformer accounted for 34.87% which was the highest. Public transformers distributed mostly across residential and large commercial centers accounted for 45.67% while, dedicated transformers installed for private individuals and organizations accounted for 54.33%. The Nearest Neighbourhood Analysis result generated showed clustered points at 0.01% significance level with 0.010787 ratio. Population density showed a strong influence on the distribution of transformers with 62.04% of the transformers located in the densely populated areas of the city.
A total of 11 transformers (3.4%) negate the 10m safety clearance from major roads, while 31 transformers accounting for 9.6% violated the American National Standards Institute/Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (ANSI/IEEE) standards of 25 years in service. The study recommends that, distribution transformers should also be located in the newly built up areas of the city so as to boost electricity supply and to encourage commercial and industrial activities in such quarters. The government and the YEDC should replace those transformers that are over 25 years and in order to avoid deterioration of insulated materials, breakdown, fire disasters and power outages.
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ANALYSIS OF SPATIAL DISTRIBUTION OF ELECTRICITY TRANSFORMERS IN JIMETA, YOLA-NORTH LOCAL GOVERNMENT AREA OF ADAMAWA STATE, NIGERIA
