Page 10 - AfrElec Week 48

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
and the ever-rising coal and other primary energy costs.
e national power system has remained fragile when, a er a winter without power cuts, Eskom resumed load-shedding in October when multiple unplanned outages and other issues took more than 20% of generation capacity out of the system.
“We concede the Eskom turnaround remains a di cult and long journey,” said Mabuza.
“ ere are di cult choices and trade-o s that will have to be made. e ultimate goal is to make Eskom a pro table, transparent, agile and a top-forming organisation which is nancially independent.”
TRADING
Zimbabwean exporters now
officially required to pay for
electricity in forex
Zimbabwe has o cially gazetted a directive to force export companies such as miners to pay for electricity in foreign currency.
It has asked that the power utility, Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa), only use the funds to import electricity, pay for international insurance or pay for the importation of key machinery and equipment.
is comes as Zimbabwe, hit by a drought that has seen water levels at the Kariba Dam which feeds its major hydro-electric plant remain low, is battling extended power outages.
Zimbabwe has turned to imports from South Africa’s Eskom, but remain in high power de cit, especially during periods when the South African power utility institutes load shedding.
A massive electricity tari increase under austerity measures that have resulted in the
removal of subsidies has also not helped Zimbabwe to raise enough foreign currency to cover for power imports or to x its power plants, which frequently breakdown.
is has forced the government to turn its attention to export companies such as gold, platinum and chrome miners as well as tourism operators that collect revenue in foreign currency.
e government is hoping to raise foreign currency which will assist in paying for electricity imports from Eskom and Mozambique’s Hydro Cahora Bassa.
e Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe said in a government gazette notice issued Friday that “Zesa shall be allowed to bill in United States dollars or the equivalent in Euro or any other currency for the supply of electricity by Zesa to the exporters, and partial exporters earning their revenue or receiving their income” in foreign currency.
HYDRO
Ethiopia, Egypt keep hydro tensions high
Ethiopia’s construction of a huge power dam on the Blue Nile is raising tensions with Egypt, which depends on the river for 90% of its water supply.
As the neighbours and Sudan meet in Cairo for talks on the potential con ict ashpoint, here is some background.
At 6,695km, the Nile is one of the world’s longest rivers and a crucial supplier of water and hydropower in a largely arid region.
Its drainage basin of more than 3-million square kilometres covers 10 countries: Burundi, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Egypt, Ethiopia, Kenya, Rwanda, South Sudan, Sudan, Tanzania and Uganda.
e two main tributaries — the White Nile and the Blue Nile — converge in Khartoum before owing north through Egypt and into
the Mediterranean Sea.
About 84-billion cubic metres of water is
estimated to ow along the Nile every year. Ethiopia in 2011 launched construction of
the Grand Renaissance Dam on the Blue Nile, 30km from the border with Sudan.
e $4.2bn dam is expected to begin generating power by the end of 2020 and be fully operational by 2022. It will produce about 6,450MW of electricity, making it Africa’s biggest hydroelectric dam and doubling Ethiopia’s electricity output.
WIND
Row in Kenya over Lake Turkana payments
e Kenyan National Treasury is locked in a showdown with the National Assembly over KESS1.2bn ($11mn) it released to the investors of the Lake Turkana Wind Power (LTWP) farm without its knowledge.
e payments were reported to be a compensation to the investors of the farm for the government’s delay in the completion of the Loiyangalani-Suswa transmission line for over a year to September 2018.
e Parliament Budget O ce (PBO) agged the introduction of the spending arguing that it contradicted article 223 of the constitution on spending money that has not been appropriated.
e National Assembly’s Budget and Appropriations Committee (BAC) demanded that the KES1.2bn ($11mn) payment be deferred for the completion of a special audit by the O ce of the Auditor-General.
Leaders from the LTWP, however, according to the broadcaster, con rmed having received all pending bills owed by the government for the delay of the line.
“We do not have any outstanding payments due from the government for the delay of the transmission line,” the broadcaster quoted LTWP Director Rizwan Fazal.
LWTP leadership had slapped the government with a ne for the delay of the transmission line as per the contract.
African Development Bank (AfDB) ranked LWTP, which is located in Marsabit County, as Africa’s largest wind farm.
LTWP has an installed capacity of 310MW of clean, reliable, low-cost energy and 365 wind turbines with a capacity of 850kW each.
“ e project will bene t Kenya by providing clean and a ordable energy that will reduce the overall energy cost to end consumers,” read a statement from AfDB in 2015.
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Week 48 05•December•2019