Page 8 - AfrElec Week 16

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G R I D
AfrElec
generation by 2022 and 42% by 2035.
Solar is a key part of this, and the Benban Solar Park is rapidly approaching its design capacity of 1,465 MW after opening its first 65
MW at the start of 2019.
At the end of 2018, Egypt had 50,000 MW of
installed capacity. This included 2,400 MW of hydro, 1,000 MW of wind and 170 MW of solar. The rest is a mix of coal, fuel oil and gas.
Meanwhile, Saudi Arabia’s ACWA Power International plans to raise as much as SAR3.75bn ($1bn) from an Islamic bond sale, Bloomberg reported.
The company, which develops and operates
59 power and water plants in 11 countries across the Middle East, Africa and Asia, is in talks with local banks about the potential deal that would be denominated in Saudi riyals.
It is currently developing the 2,300-MW gas- fired Dairut-Luxor IPP in Egypt, and also aims to reach financial closure for the 200-MW Kom Ombo solar project in Egypt.
ACWA has already signed a $0.0248 per kWh power purchase agreement (PPA) with EETC for the Kom Ombo project.
ACWA has also developed three solar pro- jects, with 165 MW of capacity at the Benban project™
FUELS
Nigeria announces end to fuel subsidies
NIGERIA
NIGERIA announces end to fuel subsidies Nigeria relies on fuel imports to meet its domestic needs, as its own four ageing refineries are barely operable. However, it has maintained subsidies to keep domestic fuel prices low for years, draining billions of dollars from public coffers. More than NGN780bn ($2bn) was spent
on these subsidies last year alone.
As recently as late March, Nigerian President
Muhammadu Buhari’s government refused to remove caps on fuel prices, instead cutting them twice over the past month.
The move to end them comes as Nigeria, Africa’s biggest oil producer, grapples to keep a handle on its finances following a catastrophic collapse in oil prices over the past month. The government has already slashed its 2020 budget by $5bn and is preparing to make further cutbacks.
“What we are putting in place today is a sit- uation where market forces will take control of prices and eliminate subsidies,” NNPC’s man- aging director Mele Kyari said in a video shared on his Twitter page. “There is no subsidy ... It is
zero forever.” Savings from the measure will be reinvested in infrastructure, healthcare and edu- cation, he said.
Nigeria will maintain some control of prices but is drafting a new system that will take market rates more into account. Because domestic prices are kept artificially low, NNPC imports virtually all of Nigeria’s gasoline, as private companies are unable to make a profit doing so.
The new pricing system is aimed at providing private firms a sufficient incentive to import fuel. However, some doubt that this system truly sig- nals an end to subsidies.
“Nigeria needs to let go of this obsession with control, price control,” SBM Intelligence told Reuters last month. “Inevitably oil prices are going to go up. What do we do at that time? We start paying subsidies again.” Nigeria recently also announced it would shut down its creak- ing oil refineries while it searches for financing to upgrade them. Once they are modernised, NNPC intends to transfer operational control of the facilities to private hands, easing another burden on the state. ™
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w w w . N E W S B A S E . c o m Week 16 23•April•2020