Farouk Salim, Director General SON

The quest and increase for energy demand grows, the need to increase the share of renewable energy in the global energy mix under the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), the Standards Organisation of Nigeria (SON) has announced plans to unveil new energy standards such as energy meters, Solar Photovoltaic (PV) panels, inverters, batteries and charge controllers.

We gathered that the standards and implication strategy were currently being supported by the Nigerian Energy Support Programme (NESP), a technical assistance programme co-funded by the European Union and the German Government and implemented by the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbHin.

The standards were developed by SON, GIZ, Federal Ministry of Power and other technical experts.

The standards body stated that the milestone would boost inflow of foreign direct investment and effecient power supply and consumption. The SON boss said the initiative would help the nation’s to conserve energy, cologically problem associated with harmful diesel generators.

The launching would hold on the 18th of May, 2021 in Abuja would deploy a multi-stakeholder approach with consultations and inputs from relevant public-private entities to develop a more regulated and standardised market that encourages further investments into Renewable Energy (RE) and Efficient Energy (EE) sector.

SON in a statement added that due to its flexibility and affordability, solar power has fast become the most popular form of renewable power.

“Our aims are to improve the framework conditions for investments in the application of renewable energy and energy efficiency and rural electrification.  The main objective is to provide guidance towards the achievement of the objectives of the strategy set for the implementation of renewable energy policy, he said

“In addition, fostering investments in a domestic market for Renewable Energy (RE) and Energy Efficiency (EE) and improving access to electricity in Nigeria,” SON added.

According to SON, following extensive consultations, 37 standards were selected and approved in November 2020, pointing out that given renewable energy’s increasing prominence, the solar power industry understandably relies heavily on standardization.

“Standards play an essential part in testing, energy conversion, reflectance or materials properties, fabricating arrays, integrating into the smart grid and assuring workplace safety,” SON stressed.

The statement said the initiative would help consumers to make informed purchasing decisions on renewable energy products.