Power is a consistent challenge in Calabar. A newspaper article over the weekend indicated 78% of Nigerians believe the limited power capabilities is the #1 issue facing the country.
Our office has 3 options: electricity, compound generator, and a dedicated office generator. The traditional electricity supply at the office compound is
inconsistent only working half the time at best. You learn to save yourr work a lot! The compound generator also has a generator, but it has limited fuel and only run in the evening for the folks staying on the lodge side. The office has procured a separate generator just for our project use. It can be run about 4 hrs a day to conserve fuel. Most days it is needed by lunch time at the latest as the office can get quite sticky and most of the battery operated products have died by then. Around town you generally get used to the constant humm of generators and smell of the diesel exhaust. Yvonne won a dinner bet our first week when she actually predicted the power would fail 4 times during our dinner. You also need to understand you can't eat dinner in less than 2 hours so it was a good length of time. At our hotel the generator is on the same side as my room so I am used to the sequence of lights going out, hearing the beeps of some system indicating it lost power (maybe some lights switching to battery), and then hearing the generator fire up. Usually takes about 1 minute for the routine complete.
Seems to be little interest in alternative energy options although we have heard some mentions of solar thoughts. One hotel spends $17k a month on diesel to support hotel and restaurant -- everything with a dependence on power has a heavy budget allocation for gen fuel.
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