A quiet shift is changing how Nigerian businesses buy power. Rather than spending capital on solar arrays, batteries or gas plant and then running them, a growing number of firms are signing up for energy-as-a-service: a provider funds, installs, owns and maintains the equipment, and the customer simply pays for the electricity it delivers, usually under a long-term contract.
The appeal is financial as much as technical. The model removes the upfront cost that has long deterred firms from leaving diesel behind, and bundles maintenance, monitoring and performance guarantees into a single tariff, often well below the all-in cost of running generators. Providers such as Starsight Energy already supply hundreds of industrial, healthcare, education and retail sites this way, while developers like CrossBoundary Energy and Arnergy, the latter of which raised $18m in 2025 to expand, are scaling similar offerings.
The structure suits Nigeria’s conditions. With the grid unreliable and diesel expensive, what businesses want is firm, predictable power without the distraction of operating a plant, and what financiers want is a contracted, metered revenue stream they can underwrite. Energy-as-a-service packages both, turning a capital project into an operating expense and shifting performance risk from the user to the specialist.
The Electricity Act 2023, by decentralising the market and widening direct-supply routes, has given the model more room to grow. As cost-reflective grid tariffs rise, the gap that once flattered grid power against self-supply narrows further, strengthening the case for letting a specialist deliver power as a service.
Why this matters
Why this matters for Nigeria’s power market
Energy-as-a-service is less a new technology than a new contract, and that is precisely why it scales. By converting power from a capital headache into a monthly bill, it brings reliable supply within reach of businesses that would never have financed a plant themselves, expanding the addressable market for distributed generation well beyond the largest industrial users.
It is also the model Nova Utilities runs. Its captive and embedded plants deliver power to commercial and industrial customers under firm, long-term terms, with Nova carrying the build, the operation and the performance. As the as-a-service approach becomes the default expectation among Nigerian power buyers, operators that already own the full stack, from generation to delivery, are best placed to meet it.