Page 12 - AfrElec Week 11

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
actions to prevent the spread of the virus. Since the start of the COVID-19 outbreak
in December 2019, the Bank has closely monitored the situation through its medical center, emergency management team, and its operational and executive crisis committees. Staff have regularly been provided with medical guidance and preventive measures are in place to protect staff and families from contamination by the virus.
BILLING
6mn Nigerians on estimated billing
Nigerian Electricity Regulation Commission (NERC) has disclosed that no fewer than 6mn electricity consumers in the country were on the estimated billings system.
The Manager Consumer Affairs, Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission, Mr. Olisa Chukwuma, disclosed this in Benin
on Wednesday, in a Town Hall Meeting with electricity consumers and stakeholders.
The Town Hall Meeting with the theme. “Addressing Electricity Issues in the BEDC States”, was organized by Stakeholders Democracy Network (SDN), supported by MacArthur Foundations aimed at addressing electricity issues in the states controlled by the Benin Electricity Distribution Company (BEDC).
Chukwuma stated that the problem with metering was that in,” those days of NEPA there were three centres where meters were procured- Lagos, Enugu, and Kaduna.
“When the DISCOs took over 2012, there were 5mn electricity consumers in Nigeria, but by 2019, we had a total of 10mn electricity consumers, and out of these numbers,6mn are on estimated billings system.
What this implies is that 6mn consumers do not know the quantity of electricity they consume.
“The problem with estimated billings is that you cannot get an accurate billing with an estimated billings.”
ESKOM
Eskom probe widens
Eskom’s contracts with five international companies will be scrutinised by South African state investigators as part of a widening probe into graft at the debt-laden state-owned utility.
The probe will review agreements with North American engineering services firms WSP Global and Black & Veatch Corp, as well as agreements with Alstom, ABB and Italian firm Teneo, Eskom said.
Documents submitted by Eskom to
the South African parliament’s Standing Committee on Public Accounts detailed the contacts. The group asked Eskom last month for contract information.
The contracts were all repeatedly modified, with the value increasing above their initial approved cost. WSP’s agreement -- signed by a company later bought by the Canadian firm -- cost Eskom more than 60 times the original fee. Black & Veatch’s is more than 130 times the initial estimate, according to Eskom.
“There is an audit going on,” said Sikonathi Mantshantsha, Eskom’s spokesman. “All
of them have been handed to the Special Investigating Unit,” as well as a number of others.
The documents filed with parliament’s financial watchdog lay bare the lack of regard for procedure or good governance by Eskom’s management over the past 15 years, during which the company racked up $28bn of debt and is now seen as the biggest threat to South Africa’s economy. The company is at the centre of an ongoing inquiry into so-called state capture, meaning the use of government- owned companies to steal money.
HYDRO
Sudan to mediate in GERD dispute
A top Sudanese general on said his country would mediate a deal on an escalating dispute between Ethiopia and Egypt over Ethiopia’s Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) on the River Nile.
The deputy head of Sudan’s Sovereign Council, Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo, said his country would work to bridge the gap and “reach an agreement” in the years-long dispute, the Associated Press reported.
Tensions are rising in east Africa because of the impasse between Ethiopia and Egypt over the $4.6bn GERD.
It is around 71% complete and promises to provide much-needed electricity to Ethiopia’s 100mn people. Egypt fears the project — set to be Africa’s largest hydraulic dam — could reduce its share of the Nile, the main source of freshwater for Egypt’s population, also more than 100mn people.
Dagalo’s remarks, which were carried by Egypt’s official news agency, came at the end of two-day visit to Cairo where he met Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sissi. Sudan sits between the Egypt and Ethiopia along the Nile’s route.
There has been public disagreement between Cairo and Addis Ababa after Ethiopia did not attend the latest round of talks over
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Week 11 19•March•2020