Page 9 - AfrElec Week 01

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
POLICY
Egypt considers adding
renewable energy offers to
2035 strategy
The Ministry of Electricity studies adding bids of private companies to establish renewable energy plants to its 2035 Strategy which aims to produce about 47% of Egypt’s total energy from renewable resources.
Ministry of Electricity has formed several committees including the Egyptian Electricity Holding Company (EEHC), the Egyptian Electricity Transmission Company (EETC), and the New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) to study offers by investors to establish energy projects with a total capacity of 5GW, Minister Mohamed Shaker told Daily News Egypt.
He stressed that the Ministry will not sign any energy contracts or agreements beginning from this year before it ensures their suitability to the 2035 Strategy.
“Every year, we will announce our plans and target projects, upon which companies can apply to launch power plants and the Ministry will choose the best technical and financial offers,” Shaker said.
Millennium Challenge
Corporation ends Meralco’s
Ghana contract
The US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) approved the termination of $190mn of compact funding to Ghana on November 8, 2019, the foreign aid agency said in a letter to the West African country that was made public at the end of December.
This came after the concession agreement that was supposed to allow a consortium to take over the Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) was terminated in October.
The consortium was called Power Distribution Services (PDS) Ghana Ltd. It was made up of Manila Electric Company (Meralco) through Meridian Power Ventures Ltd., Angolan company AEnergia SA, and Ghanaian firms TG Energy Solutions Ghana Limited, Santa Power Limited, and GTS Power limited.
MCC was supposed to give a total of $498.2mn to Ghana to help the country build a self-sustaining power sector that will provide reliable and affordable power to nearly 10mn Ghanaians. The compact agreement was composed of two tranches: $279.3mn and $190mn.
Upon signing, $28.9mn was already released to Ghana. MCC said the balance is still intact and that it would be managed
and implemented by the Millennium Development Authority (MiDa).
In July, Ghana suspended the concession of ECG, citing that part of the financial transaction of the concession had been fraudulently obtained. However, an independent audit conducted by MiDa showed there was no information to suggest fraud took place in the deal.
MCC Chief Executive Officer Sean Cairncross said the suspension was “unfounded” and that “the rights of Power Distribution Services (PDS) as concessionaire should be restored.”?
METERING
Kenya Power abandons
plans to phase out post-
paid meters
Kenya Power, the electricity distribution monopoly, has retreated from its earlier plan to phase out post-paid meters in a move it had said would have ended payment defaults.
Instead, it has invited bids for supply of nearly 200,000 post-paid meters signalling a U-turn on the plan that was to see it shift to the prepaid metering.
The firm has invited manufacturers and suppliers of the gadgets to bid for the lucrative tender that closes on January 17.
“The Kenya Power & Lighting Company Plc invites bids from eligible tenderers for supply of (199,157) single phase post-paid meters,” said Kenya Power in a tender notice by Joyce Ochieng, its supply chain general manager.
The utility firm had earlier said it would switch electricity bill defaulters to prepaid meters from post-paid billing to reduce mounting customer debt.
REGULATION
Mabea takes over at Energy
Regulators Association of
East Africa
Energy market expert Geoffrey Mabea
has taken up the CEO post at the Energy Regulators Association of East Africa (EREA).
Mabea, who formerly held a teaching post at the University of Dundee in the UK,
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