Techniques of enhancing electrical energy Management in Residential buildings, small and Medium enterprises in Niger State,

Abstract

The study adopted Cross Sectional Survey Research Design. The target population of the study comprises of heads of households in residential buildings and technical staff of SMEs that are connected to the electricity distribution network in Niger State. The population of the study was 191,990 and this was made up of 191,416 heads of households in residential buildings and 574 technical Staff of SMEs that are connected to the distribution network in Niger State. The sample for the study consisted of 1,578 subjects. 1,290 heads of households in residential buildings, 288 registered SMEs were drawn through Multistage Sampling Techniques. Two research questions and two null hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance. The instrument used for data collection was a structured questionnaire; out of 1,290 questionnaires distributed to residents 987 were returned representing 76.50% while 288 questionnaires distributed to SMEs 231 were returned representing 80.20%. Statistical Package for Social Sciences (SPSS version 19) was used for data analysis. Mean and Standard Deviation were used to answer the research questions, while Levene’s test Statistic, One–way Analysis of Variance (ANOVA), to test different hypotheses at (P ˂ 0.05). The finding of the study shows that, need to promote awareness on electrical energy management practices through public enlightenment campaigns, cultivate positive maintenance culture towards electrical equipment, appliances and devices. Based on these findings, the following recommendations were made: Electricity Management Board in collaboration with Energy Commission of Nigeria and Center for Energy Efficiency and Conservation should jointly organize public enlightenment campaigns to promote electrical energy management practices, the residential electrical energy users and technical staff of SMEs should cultivate positive maintenance culture towards electrical equipment, appliances and devices and Government should retrofit homes by replacing incandescent bulbs with energy saving bulbs of lower.