Page 11 - AfrElec Week 02

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
POLICY
South Africa will embrace
private power generation,
Ramaphosa says
South Africa will embrace efforts by businesses to generate their own electricity, President Cyril Ramaphosa said on January 15.
“For the first time we are now saying let us have self-generation,” Ramaphosa told an economic conference in Johannesburg, Reuters reported.
“We have opened up a new era ... that
says we are now embracing the fact there are those companies and households that want to generate their own energy.”
He was reacting to growing frustration at red tape throttling private power generation.
Ramaphosa is under pressure over nationwide power cuts that have dented economic output and sapped investor confidence in Africa’s most industrialised economy.
Many power-hungry companies such as mines want to build their own renewable energy plants to reduce their reliance on Eskom but have not been able to secure the necessary regulatory approvals.
South Africa’s mining industry body the Minerals Council urged the government to act urgently to bring online new power sources and ease licensing rules.
INVESTMENT
EBRAD invests $60mn in Egypt’s Infinity Energy
The EBRD is investing $60mn to become a shareholder in Infinity Energy, one of Egypt’s leading private energy companies through the issuance of new shares.
The funds will go towards developing the company’s pipeline of renewable energy and electricity distribution projects as well as electric vehicles charging stations.
This investment comes in parallel to
the signature of a joint venture agreement between Infinity Energy and Abu Dhabi’s Masdar, under which Masdar will invest
in Infinity Energy’s portfolio of renewable assets, and partner with Infinity in upcoming renewable energy projects in Egypt and Africa
The investment will contribute to Egypt’s ongoing energy transition by supporting the growth of renewable energy. The Egyptian government has declared a target for 20
per cent of its electricity generation from renewable sources by 2022 and 42 per cent by 2035.
In Egypt, the price of electricity produced by renewable projects has been steadily decreasing across the past several years to become more competitive than conventional fossil fuel sources. This has created strong demand in Egypt from commercial and industrial heavy electricity consumers to have access to electricity from private renewable energy producers.
The Egyptian government has pursued energy diversification and liberalisation by facilitating a market for private renewable energy development in recent years. However, access to equity financing remains key to
the development of renewable energy in the country.
TARIFFS
South Africa’s Eskom takes
energy regulator to court
over tariffs
South Africa’s Eskom has taken its tariff dispute with the energy regulator to court
in a bid to secure the higher tariffs that the company says it ned to avoid financial disaster.
Eskom has asked the High Court for an order allowing it to impose a tariff increase of 16.6% from April 2020 and 16.7% from April 2021, Reuters reported.
Eskom argues that energy regulator Nersa’s tariff decision for the 2019-22 financial years should be set aside because it incorrectly treated ZAR69bn ($4.8bn) of state bailouts when calculating the amount of revenue Eskom should be allowed to recoup via tariffs.
Nersa awarded Eskom annual tariff increases of 9.4% for 2019/20, 8.1% for 2020/21 and 5.2% for 2021/22, far below the annual increases of around 15% Eskom had applied for.
GRID
Nigeria’s TCN forecasts
20,000MW of transmission
capacity by 2023
Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN) said that Nigeria might achieve 20,000MW of wheeling capacity in 2023.
Although, Nigeria’s current capacity hovers around 8,100 MW but in real terms, only an average of less than 4,000WM is wheeled to consumers.
Speaking in Abuja on the capacity that would be realised by implementing the Transmission, Rehabilitation and Expansion Programme (TREP) policy of the company, TCN public affairs general manager Ndidi Mba said the agency has energised another brand new 100MVA 132/33kV power
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