Page 11 - AfrElec Week 35

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
GRID
Nexans wins contract from
McDermott for BP’s greater
Tortue Ahmeyim project
McDermott Marine Construction has awarded a contract to Nexans for the supply of approximately 100 km subsea umbilicals and accessories for the Greater Tortue Ahmeyim natural gas project o shore Mauritania and Senegal.
Under the terms of the contract, Nexans will provide management, procurement, engineering, manufacturing and testing activities for the umbilicals and ancillary hardware.
e electrical cables and bre optics will be manufactured at Nexans’ Norway plant in Rognan and the umbilicals will be developed, manufactured and tested at Nexans’ specialised plant in Halden, Norway. e delivery will take place in 2021.
Vincent Dessale, Senior Executive Vice President for Subsea and Land Systems at Nexans said: “ e Greater Tortue Ahmeyim contract is of strategic importance to Nexans in maintaining a market position in the West African region as well as being a part of a new, ultra-deepwater gas development. It highlights our continuous drive to develop competitive solutions for complex eld developments.” NEXANS
HYDRO
Ethiopia, Egypt confirm progress on GERD
Ethiopian Energy Minister Seleshi Bekele said that Egypt had o cially requested that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (GERD) be lled within seven years.
Bekele said that this issue, along with several others, will be discussed in a meeting between Egyptian and Sudanese o cials slated to take place next month.
He also said that his Egyptian counterpart, Mohammed Abdel-Ati, recently passed to Ethiopia a study regarding the issue of lling the dam.
“ e study requests that the dam should be lled in seven years,” he said, noting that his country replied to Egypt’s study but giving no further details.
Bekele said that the dam would start producing electricity a er 15 months and work would be o cially completed by 2023.
Egypt fears that the dam will reduce the amount of water reaching it through the Nile, which begins from Abyssinian or Ethiopian Plateau.
RENEWABLES
ENGIE acquires African off- gird solar provider Mobisol
ENGIE has expanded its decentralised energy o ering in Africa through the acquisition of Mobisol, a pioneer of o -grid solar solutions.
Mobisol has operations in Tanzania, Rwanda, and Kenya and has installed more than 150,000 solar home systems, providing clean and reliable energy to over 750,000 people in Sub-Saharan Africa.
With the acquisition of Mobisol, ENGIE will be o ering solar home systems in 3 additional countries, complementing the six countries where it is already present with its solar home system company Fenix International.
Mobisol’s focus on productive use products, combined with Fenix’s inclusive home solar power systems, will enable ENGIE to o er an unparalleled range of a ordable energy products as well as extending its customer base from rural to urban areas.
e closing of the acquisition of Mobisol will happen once all approvals of the relevant regulatory bodies are received.
ENGIE already has signi cant activities in o -grid electri cation in Africa. With its subsidiary Fenix International, it provides access to energy and nancial services via its solar home systems to over 500,000 customers, improving the quality of life
for over 2.5 million people in Uganda,
Zambia, Nigeria, Benin, Cote d’Ivoire and Mozambique.
Additionally, with ENGIE PowerCorner, it supplies a ordable electricity to rural populations through smart mini-grids powered by solar energy and battery storage.
PowerCorner o ers 24/7 energy services to households, local businesses and public services in villages across Tanzania and Zambia. All of these services are enabled by digital nancial solutions such as mobile money and Pay As You Go technologies.
Isabelle Kocher, ENGIE CEO declared: “With the acquisition of Mobisol, ENGIE expands its access to a market of millions who are not connected to the grid and establishes itself as the market leader on the continent. Not only do we change people’s lives with clean energy but we trigger economic activities for households and entrepreneurs who generate additional income once they are connected. With ENGIE Power Corner, Fenix, and now Mobisol, we will pave the way for a new generation of a ordable energy services, in line with our strategy focused on the acceleration of the zero-carbon transition.” ENGIE
Eskom faces emissions woes
Eskom could be forced to shut some plants
if it fails to reduce emissions, chief operating o cer Jan Oberholzer warned, raising the spectre of further blackouts, Reuters reported.
e potential closures, which Oberholzer said could cut a tenth of the state rm’s 45,000 MW production capacity, piles pressure on the government which has had to bail out the debt-ridden company to keep it a oat.
Africa’s biggest public utility supplies over 90% of South Africa’s electricity, relying
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