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Abstract
Development is essential to the sustenance and growth of any nation. The Power Holding Company of Nigeria (PHCN) is saddled with the responsibility of electricity generation, transmission and distribution, but bedevilled with frequent and persistent power outages. Therefore, the federal government embarked on power sector reforms to improve the nation’s energy crisis and in turn, reduce the scope of monopoly control of its power industry. The Nigerian vision 20:2020 strategic objective is to ensure that the power sector can efficiently deliver sustainable, adequate, qualitative, reliable and affordable power in a deregulated market. The vision estimated Nigeria would need to generate 35,000MW of electricity by 2020, with a target to grow installed power generation capacity from 6,000MW in 2009 to 20,000MW by 2015 and 35,000MW by 2020. This paper discusses the power sector reforms in Nigeria concerning energy projections to meet with energy demand. Therefore the paper proposes the adoption of an empirical formula for national electricity demand projections from 2020 to 2050 for sustainable socioeconomic development. Results showed that the expected installed power generation capacity by the year 2050 is 140,599MW of electricity, implying that the country needs many power plants, in a mixed aggregate, to meet this demand. The paper concluded that faithful implementation and commitment of our leaders on the policies developed from electricity demand projections are vital for the achievement of sustainable development in Nigeria. The paper made appropriate recommendations. Keywords: Reforms, Electricity, Projections, Power plants, Development