www.idosr.org Attamah 96 IDOSR JOURNAL OF CURRENT ISSUES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES 2(1): 96-101, 2016. International Digital Organization for Scientific Research ISSN: 2579-0765 IDOSR JOURNAL OF CURRENT ISSUES IN SOCIAL SCIENCES 2(1): 96-101, 2016. ©IDOSR Publications Intermittent Power Supply and Its Effects on GDP of Developing Nations Nicholas Attamah Department of Economics Enugu State University of Science and Technology (ESUT) Enugu, Nigeria. ABSTRACT Much progress has been made in recent decades in connecting the people of the world to reliable supplies of electricity, but some regions remain particularly under-served. Intermittent electricity is electrical energy that is not continuously available due to external factors that cannot be controlled, produced by electricity generating sources that vary in their conditions on a fairly short time scale. The shortage of power supply will seriously affect the healthy development of the economy and can cause large economic losses. To justify intervention by development agencies and governments to improve electricity access and reliability, it is desirable to know that this intervention would have a causal effect on economic growth, poverty, and other development indicators of interest. Keywords: Intermittent, Power Supply and GDP. INTRODUCTION Intermittent electricity is electrical energy that is not continuously available due to external factors that cannot be controlled, produced by electricity generating sources that vary in their conditions on a fairly short time scale. Sources of intermittent electricity include solar power, wind power, tidal power, and wave power [1]. Although solar and tidal power are fairly predictable (length of days, weather patterns, tidal cycles), they are still intermittent because the time period that electricity can be created is limited. Because of this varying electrical generation these sources are considered non-dispatchable, meaning that their electrical output cannot be used at any given time to meet societies fluctuating electricity demands. Power supply is an electrical device that supplies electric power to an electrical load. The primary function of a power supply is to convert electric current from a source to the correct voltage, current, and frequency to power the load [2]. As a result, power supplies are sometimes referred to as electric power converters [3]. Some power supplies are separate standalone pieces of equipment, while others are built into the load appliances that they power. Examples of the latter include power supplies found in desktop computers and consumer electronics devices. Other functions that power supplies may perform include limiting the current drawn by the load to safe levels, shutting off the current in the event of an electrical fault, power conditioning to prevent electronic noise or voltage surges on the input from reaching the load, power-factor correction, and storing energy so it can continue to power the load in the event of a temporary interruption in the source power (uninterruptible power supply) [4]. All power supplies have a power input connection, which receives energy in the form of electric current from a source, and one or more power output connections that deliver current to the load. The source power may come from the electric power grid, such as an electrical outlet, energy storage devices such as batteries or fuel cells, generators or alternators, solar power converters, or another power supply [5]. The electricity industry is a basic and significant industry of the national economy, which is closely related to economic development. On the one hand, electricity is a driving force of economic development [6]. The shortage of power supply will seriously affect the