Page 13 - AfrElec Week 15

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
in 2018, he had breached his fiduciary duties or any Eskom policies, and whether there was any corruption or whether he had derived any personal benefit from a 2007 Black and Veatch contract or his subsequent involvement with the contract.
US consulting engineers Black & Veatch were contracted to assist at Kusile, with the cost reaching some ZAR12bn by 2017.
GAS-FIRED GENERATION
Nigerian government
approves gas funding to
boost electricity supply
The Nigerian federal government has approved about NGN200bn for the power sector to boost the supply of gas to the electricity generation companies (GENCos).
The Group Managing Director (GMD) of the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC), Mele Kyari, who disclosed this on April 15, said the provision was part of the government’s effort to boost electricity supply during the lockdown period.
Kyari spoke at the end of his meeting with the Minister of Power, Saleh Mamman, and the Managing Director of the Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Usman Mohammed, at the Ministry of Power in Abuja, according to an official statement.
“The federal government has approved the payment of over N200bn to the power sector in the two or three days. This will go a long way in making sure that those payment issues are resolved. We are engaging as the government to make sure that those payment issues are fully settled,” the NNPC boss said.
He said the meeting was held at the instance of the minister of power to further improve on gas supply to the power plants.
RENEWABLES
Egypt targets 6.34GW of solar capacity
Egypt’s New and Renewable Energy Authority (NREA) has announced that it has been studying requests to construct power plants to a capacity of 6.34GW, 2.75GW of which are projects taken up by the private sector.
Apparently, Mohamed Al-Khayat, head of NREA stated that the projects involve wind farms of 250MW owned by the public
sector and photovoltaic power plants that have a capacity of 170MW. Initiated by the private sector, there will also be other wind farms with a capacity of 1,950MW as well as 800MW photovoltaic power plants.
He also added that the country has been planning to increase the contributions towards the electricity generation mix from renewable energy to around 20% by the year 2022. It also has the possibility of doubling up by the year 2035. This will be taken further by having adopted a flexible policy package as well as the models to promote private investments, like build-own-operate.
The feed-in tariff has led to the implementation of a solar energy complex located in Benban at a capacity of around 1,465MW. The projects of the private sector generally show a double growth rate annually, apart from the government wind farms of NREA in Gabal El Zeit and Zafarana that tend to produce more than 1,100MW.
The future projections have been expecting a quicker implementation of all the renewable energy projects, that depend on their competitiveness.
African Union and IRENA
to Advance Renewables in
Response to COVID-19
The African Union Commission (AUC) and the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) have agreed to work closely to advance renewable energy across the continent to bolster Africa’s response to COVID-19.
The two organisations will focus on
innovative solutions to drive the development of renewable energy including decentralised systems, and to increase access to energy across the continent.
The cooperation aims to bolster Africa’s response to the pandemic by, inter alia, improving the ability of rural health centres and communities to deal with the health challenge using renewable energy to power critical services such as medical equipment and water pumping for improving hygiene.
Africa is home to more than two thirds of the world’s least developed countries and 600 million people currently live without access to modern energy services. Paradoxically, Africa possesses vast renewable energy potential that could cover nearly a quarter of its energy needs through indigenous renewable energy by 2030.
The deployment of renewables-based solutions is, therefore, central to the achievement of universal access and a key enabler for the attainment of the aspirations of the AU Agenda 2063 as well as achievement of the UN Agenda 2030 on Sustainable Development. The two organisations will collaborate to make this possible.
During a virtual discussion, Dr. Amani Abou-Zeid, Commissioner for Infrastructure and Energy of the African Union Commission and Francesco La Camera, Director-General of IRENA agreed that a concerted and coordinated response is essential to address the energy related response to COVID-19 and noted that renewable energy offers the most plausible and sustainable response, which
will continue to uplift the quality of life for millions of Africans long after the pandemic. IRENA
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