Page 12 - AfrElec Week 18

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F U E L S
AfrElec
volumes for local distribution, while companies that rely on private storage facilities must pay all taxes due upon offloading, he said.
As such, he said, RWAPI wants the govern- ment to permit the usage of private facilities on the same terms. “Some of us have facilities where we can offload this fuel, but we cannot afford to pay the full tax right away,” he told The New Times. “We are hoping to discuss with the Minis- try of Trade and come up with a solution that will cut [down] on the losses we are incurring right now.” Trade Minister Soraya Hakuziyaremye indicated that Kigali was considering RWAPI’s proposal but stressed that no solution had been adopted yet. “It’s true that they have contacted us.
We are dealing with people who have nowhere to offload this fuel and [are] considering giving them tax concessions so that they can take this fuel to their petrol stations, and then we can revisit this when activities actively reopen,” she said.
Rwanda typically consumes about 20mn litres per month of gasoline and the same amount of diesel. Gasoline consumption dropped to an esti- mated 5mn litres in April, though, while diesel consumption sank to 7mn litres. The New Times estimated the volume of excess motor fuel still waiting to be unloaded from tanker trucks at 6.6mn litres.™
POLICY
IRENA call on the Gambia to push renewables
The International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) has called on the Gambian authorities to give absolute priority to renewable energy in their policy for the electrification of the country.
IRENA said that the adoption of renewable energies must be generalised by diversifying the different sources of supply.
These include solar and wind energy, geothermal energy, hydroelectricity, bioenergy (biogas and biomass) and marine energy.
The International Renewable Energy Agency is thus offering its support to the Gambia in its energy transition, which began in March 2019.
The government of this West African country launched an ambitious renewable energy programme with the support of its partners, notably the World Bank and the European Investment Bank (EIB). As part of this programme, the Gambian government wants to set up a 150MWp solar power plant in Soma, a town located in the centre of Gambia, near the border with Senegal.
The project, developed under a public-private partnership (PPP), will
be implemented in two phases. The first phase involves the construction of a solar photovoltaic power plant that will be capable of delivering 80MWp.
This facility will be commissioned in 2021. With an expected capacity of 70MWp, the
NEWS IN BRIEF
second phase will be completed in 2025. The solar park will also have a battery storage system with a capacity of 100 to 150MWh. The plant will reinforce the power grid of the state-owned National Water & Electricity Company (Nawec).
The Gambia currently has an installed capacity of 125MW, with an actual output of about 75MW, about 40MW less than current demand. This capacity is expected to increase rapidly, given the many other solar projects that are currently being developed in the country.
POLICY
Zambia aims for energy surplus
The African Development Bank (AfDB) has noted that Zambia’s Itezhi-Tezhi Hydropower Dam, has increased the country’s power generation capacity by 7.5%, supplying an extra 50,000 people with electricity.
The $375mn Itezhi-Tezhi hydroelectric generating station became operational in 2016. The plant has a 120MW capacity and is the fruit of the first public-private partnership project in the Zambian energy sector.
Its primary objective has been to produce enough power to end the crippling daily blackouts and meet consumer needs of the country’s 17 million inhabitants.
AFDB
TARIFFS
Nigerians to pay higher electricity tariffs
Nigerians will pay much higher tariff for power in 2021, going by promises made by the Federal Government to the International Monetary Fund while seeking the $3.4bn emergency financial assistance recently approved for Nigeria.
The Executive Board of the IMF approved the Rapid Financing Instrument, which the Federal Government plans to use to address the economic impact of the COVID-19 pandemic in the country, on April 28.
A Letter of Intent, jointly signed by the Finance Minister, Zainab Ahmed, and the Governor of Central Bank of Nigeria, Godwin Emefiele, and addressed to the IMF Managing Director, Kristalina Georgieva, indicated that the Federal Government made a number of promises to the fund in order to secure the financial assistance.
One of the promises, or commitments, which the government made in a bid to assure the executive board of the IMF of its readiness to reposition the Nigerian economy after the pandemic, is that Nigerians would pay full cost-reflective tariff for power in 2021.
The Federal Government also told the IMF it intends to cap electricity tariff shortfalls to N380bn in 2020.
“We are also advancing in our power sector reforms – with technical assistance and financial support from the World Bank – including through capping electricity tariff
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Week 18 07•May•2020