The real cost of NEPA: what 200 hours of generator fuel actually costs

The grid in most Nigerian cities now sits at 14-18 hours of daily supply on Band A, less on Bands B-D. Even at 16 hours, the missing 8 hours mean a generator running about 240 hours per month for a household that wants continuous power.

Fuel burn by generator size. A 2.5KVA Tiger or Sumec at full load burns roughly 1.1 litres of petrol per hour. A 5KVA Honda EM5000K1 (the household standard pick) burns 1.7–1.9 L/hr at typical load. A 7.5KVA burns 2.3–2.6 L/hr.

At today's petrol price — currently around ₦870/L national average (see /petrol) — that's:

• 2.5KVA household running 8 hours/day → 264 L/month → ~₦230,000/month in petrol alone
• 5KVA whole-home → 432 L/month → ~₦376,000/month
• 7.5KVA full-house with AC → 600 L/month → ~₦522,000/month

For comparison, here's what Band A grid power costs for the same household electricity draw (≈600 kWh/month for a 5KVA-equivalent load): roughly ₦125,700/month at ₦209.5/kWh (see /electricity-tariffs).

The honest takeaway. Grid electricity, even at the cost-reflective Band A rate, is 3× cheaper per useful kWh than running a petrol generator. The economic case for solar + inverter starts making sense when you're routinely covering more than 6 hours of daily gen runtime — payback under 30 months at current diesel-equivalent costs.

Want the math for your specific setup? Our inflation calculator tracks petrol back to 2020, and the /data archive records daily averages — drop both into a spreadsheet with your actual generator hours and you'll have a defensible monthly energy budget.