Power Interruptions and Broadcasting Media Programmes in Enugu: Case Study of ESBs Radio and Television
Chapter One
OBJECTIVES OF THE STUDY
The general objective of this study is to examine the impact of power interruptions to broadcasting corporations in Nigeria. The specific objectives of this study include the following:
- To find the prevalence of power interruptions among broadcasting organizations in Enugu.
- To ascertain the influence of power interruptions on the productivity of Broadcasting stations in Enugu.
- To examine the influence of power interruptions on viewers’ satisfaction.
- To determine the cost of alternative sources of power supply and its impact on the profit margins of broadcasting corporations.
- To examine the effect of erratic power supply on competiveness of Broadcasting stations.
CHAPTER TWO
REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
Conceptual Framework
Electricity
Electricity is the flow of electrical power or charge. It is a secondary energy source which means that we get it from the conversion of other sources of energy, like coal, natural gas, oil, nuclear power and other natural sources, which are called primary sources. The energy sources of electricity can be renewable or non-renewable, but electricity itself is neither renewable nor non-renewable. (McGraw-Hill Encyclopaedia of Science and Technology, 2002) Electricity is a basic part of nature and it is one of our most widely used forms of energy. Many cities and towns were built alongside waterfalls (a primary source of mechanical energy) that turned water wheels to perform work. Before electricity generation began over 100 years ago, houses were lit with kerosene lamps, food was cooled in iceboxes, and rooms were warmed by wood-burning or coal-burning stoves. Beginning with Benjamin Franklin’s experiment with a kite one stormy night in Philadelphia, the principles of electricity gradually became understood. (McGraw-Hill Encyclopaedia of Science & Technology, 2002)
Thomas Edison helped change everyone’s life, he perfected his invention, the electric light bulb. Prior to 1879, direct current (DC) electricity had been used in arc lights for outdoor lighting. In the late-1800s, Nikola Tesla pioneered the generation, transmission, and use of alternating current (AC) electricity, which can be transmitted over much greater distances than direct current. The household form of electricity is alternating current (AC) where the movement of electric charge periodically reverses direction opposite to direct current (DC) where the flow of electric charge is only occurring in one direction. Tesla’s inventions used electricity to bring indoor lighting to our homes and to power industrial machines. Despite its great importance in our daily lives, most of us rarely stop to think what university libraries in provision of e-newspapers services would be like without electricity. Yet like air and water, we tend to take electricity for granted. Every day, we use electricity to do many jobs for us, from lighting and transport, communications, computation cooling our libraries, to powering our computers, library automation cum usage of internet facilities. Electrical power is now the backbone of modern industrial society (Agboola, 2011).
Generation
Most electricity is generated at large scale conventional power stations from various natural resources such as coal, natural gas and hydro. In most of Australia, generators can competitively bid to have their output dispatched into a “pool” such as the National Electricity Market in the eastern and southern states, or the Wholesale Electricity Market in Western Australia. These markets are administered by an independent market operator.
In addition to conventional large scale generators, there is increasing use of distributed generation within networks. These generators are typically cogeneration plants located in factories producing and utilizing steam, coal seam methane installations associated with coal mining, wind farms, biogas and solar installations.
Transmission
Many large conventional power stations are located at or close to the fuel resource which is often a considerable distance from where the major demand for electricity is located. Large quantities of electricity are therefore transported over the transmission network to major substations located in key areas. Transmission lines typically operate at voltages ranging from 132kV to 500kV, and may link states.
High voltages are needed for the economic transport of large quantities of electricity but are far too high for most viewers to use. Terminal or Bulk Supply Substations transform these voltages to lower voltages used in the sub transmission and distribution network. These substations also contain switchgear to control the flow of electricity.
Distribution
Distribution is a generic term that usually encompasses both sub transmission and distribution functions. Voltages such as 132kV, 66kV and 33kV are commonly used in the sub transmission system to distribute large blocks of power. Zone substations then transform from sub transmission voltages to medium voltages (MV) such as 22kV or 11kV. Many large industrial and, to a lesser extent, commercial viewers take supply at these voltages. Sub transmission and medium voltage feeders could be overhead power lines or underground cables. Distribution transformers transform high voltage to the low voltage (230/400V) that is reticulated for general use within households, shops, businesses, factories, hospitals, schools and other smaller customer installations.
Retail
Retailers aggregate the electricity requirements of large numbers of viewers and purchase energy from the wholesale market. Due to changes in supply and demand, the price in the wholesale market changes frequently. Retailers enter into contracts with generators to enable stable prices to be offered to viewers. As well as performing this function, retailers co-ordinate the billing of network service and market administration charges, and provide a single point of contact for the majority of issues faced by viewers. Retailers and Network Service Providers work closely together to ensure that any technical or commercial issues viewers may have are dealt with efficiently and promptly.
CHAPTER THREE
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
Research Design
The study employed a descriptive research design. Data was collected by both primary and secondary sources. The primary source of data was the self-structured questionnaire which was distributed to respondents in the study area. The secondary source of data involved the use of journals, eBooks, libraries and repositories in developing the literature.
Population of the Study
The population of this study was drawn from four different television broadcasting stations within the Enugu. Because these organisations are Multimedia Communication Environments, hence they provide an enabling environment to examine the roles, relevance, awareness and availability of the Graphic Designer.
The selected television broadcasting stations include Nigerian Television Authority (NTA), Channels Television, African Independent Television (AIT) and Dasamal Television Network (DTN). The reason for selecting these stations within the Enugu of Nigeria is because they have all necessary professionals required.
CHAPTER FOUR
RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Analysis of survey findings
A total of 496 out of the 600 questionnaires (82.7%) were successfully retrieved.
The distribution of the broadcasting firms by specialty is shown in Table 3.
CHAPTER FIVE
CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATION
CONCLUSION
This study analyzed the impact of power interruptions on broadcasting corporations in Nigeria. The study applied survey technique. One strong outcome of the study is that the poor state of electricity supply in Nigeria has imposed significant costs on the broadcasting sector of the Nigerian economy.
The bulk of these costs come in the form of acquisition of very expensive backup power. However, the decision to acquire a backup is actually a rational decision on the part of the firm in order to insure it from larger losses arising from frequent and long power fluctuations.
The continuation of the existing state of power supply will no doubt continue to have a negative impact on the attempt by the government to diversify the entertainment and export base of the economy away from oil. A situation where broadcasting firms spend as much as 25% to 40% of initial investment on the acquisition of facilities to enhance electricity supply reliability has a significant negative impact on the cost competitiveness of the broadcasting sector.
Furthermore, as the results of our analysis have shown, small-scale operators are more heavily affected by the infrastructure failures. In many instances they are unable to finance the cost of backup necessary to mitigate the negative impact of frequent outages. Hence, they have to bear the full burden of electricity failures. Small-scale operators that could afford to back up their operations have to spend a significant proportion of their investment outlay on this.
Recommendations
Based on the result obtained from the research work and conclusion drawn, the following recommendations will put more emphases on increasing the level of power supply in Nigeria.
(i) Government should increase its funding of the electricity sector to at least 15-25 percent on annual budget. This is also in recognition of the fact that government expenditure are constrained by scarce resources available to its executing budget. But the upward review of funds to the power supply and small scale enterprise sectors has the capacity of generating a great impact in terms of economic growth. Therefore, priority should also be given to power supply sector.
(ii) For small and medium scale enterprise survive in the Nigeria business environment that is becoming more and more competitive, it has to apply the result of scientific and technological revolution in its production. In other to progress, there is the need for investors to acquire technology know how, in Nigeria for instance, the national office of industrial property (NOIP)
(iii) There is also a need for an opening of the market for greater competition in the supply and distribution of power. Increase in the levels of competition would yield quality and efficiency in supply and service delivery. Since 1962 till date, the electricity supply market has not been opened up to competition. It has been dominated by a state monopoly,
Electricity Distribution Companies of various states. However, a more competitive environment, where features such as price, efficiency and service quality would characterize the criteria for operation would contribute to the reliability in power supply.
(iv) After looking through the problems and all the inefficacies of Electricity Distribution Companies, we draw conclusion that because of these set back in the power sector, it has a negative effect on productivity. This is because of the cost of doing business when there is power interruptions. The challenges for policy options towards attainment of sustainable thus including putting in place measures that will successfully address the demand and supply constraints. The measures should also facilitate the adoption and implementation of specific renewable energy resource such as solar for areas where the national grip system could not reach or not economically viable.
- The study recommends that regulatory bodies responsible for the energy sector must set some standards for the generation, distribution and costing of electric power where preference would be given to key sectors of the economy such as broadcasting Corporations since they are known to provide jobs for a large number of people and contribute significantly to the economic growth of the country. Standards in the distribution of power are also critical to ensure continuous supply of power to industries. Two approaches for setting standards are recommended. Firstly, there is a need for the setting of a penalty for each standard power distributor that does not meet the required supply level agreed. Such penalties would be effective if they are compulsory and automatic (Waddams et al., 2002). Secondly, it is essential to create incentive scheme to reward power distribution companies’ that ensures the standards are being maintained and also eliminate the waste in energy supply (Bowdery, 1994).
- The government and other policy makers would have to place greater emphasis on facilitating equity capital. Equity capital provides a base for further borrowing, reduces businesses’ sensitivity to economic cycles, and provides broadcasting Corporations with access to syndicates of private and institutional venture capital suppliers. There could also be policies aimed at encouraging broadcasting Corporations to access public equity capital through the reduction of listing requirements and subsidizing flotation cost. These policy prescriptions could go a long way to improve Nigerian Broadcasting Corporations’ access to long-term financing to spur up growth.
References
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