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In a major investigation, African Energy has probed unanswered questions about South Africa’s energy transition, which is being shaped by large corporations and their need for reliable, low-carbon power. African Energy has reviewed the details of corporate developments and Nersa licensing decisions, evaluated the outlook for transmission projects and sounded out sources across the industry. The African Energy team has also studied the sustainability and climate change pledges of Energy Intensive Users Group (EIUG) members. EIUG is a voluntary body that represents many of the country’s largest power consumers.   African Energy’s research has revealed several key factors on which the future of the sector will depend. 

Ghana’s independent power producers (IPPs) are moving closer to a deal with the government over its arrears, as a wider – and long-awaited – multilateral debt restructuring package led by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and World Bank Group (WBG) slowly comes to fruition.

Privately-owned indie Perenco has long been a significant upstream player in west and central Africa and it is now extending its position with new discoveries and plans to increase production in Chad, Republic of Congo and elsewhere, as its general manager Benoît de la Fouchardiere tells African Energy.

African Energy examines the events surrounding the recent talks in late October between President General Abdel-Fattah Burhan’s Sudanese Armed Forces (SAF) and the Rapid Support Forces (RSF) led by Lieutenant General Mohammed Hamdan Dagalo (often known as Hemedti).

State-owned Kenya Electricity Generating Company (KenGen) is seeking a consultant to conduct a feasibility study on a proposed 40MW floating solar PV plant on the Kamburu hydroelectric power (HEP) plant reservoir.

Organisers made big claims about investment flows at the AfDB-backed Africa Investment Forum 2023 Market Days event in Morocco, James Gavin reports from Marrakech.

The Zambian government has said it will abandon the current 30-day pricing cycle for petroleum products and instead move to a 90-day review period, reversing a policy that was set late last year. However, the Energy Regulation Board (ERB) has told African Energy that changing the price review mechanism cannot happen “overnight” and a number of issues need to be assessed before the current 30-day cycle can be discarded.

The issue leads with a special report on South Africa. In a major investigation, African Energy’s editorial and data teams have probed unanswered questions about South Africa’s energy transition, which is being shaped by large corporations and their need for reliable, low-carbon power. The results show a booming private sector electricity market that is also unpredictable and freighted with risk for all participants.   Our usual power coverage leads with Ethiopia, where tensions are ratcheting up with neighbouring Eritrea. Sources say five more turbines are expected to come online at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the coming months, even as questions remain over the megaproject’s economic impact and whether the infrastructure exists to increase exports. African Energy re-examines the prospects for the Kudu gas field, which could provide substantial gas-to-power capacity for Namibia’s domestic market and for export to South Africa. Officials say it will proceed independently of recent massive Orange Basin discoveries further south, but industry observers are sceptical of the electricity export plans, citing the lack of power transmission infrastructure. Oil and gas coverage also includes an interview with Perenco general manager Benoît de la Fouchardiere focused on the privately-owned indie's regional ambitions. African Energy reports on big claims about investment flows at the AfDB-backed Africa Investment Forum 2023 Market Days event in Morocco. The African Energy View focuses on Algeria, where President Abdelmadjid Tebboune has dismissed PM Aymen Benabderrahmane and all eight vice presidents at Sonatrach, having already removed the national oil company’s chief Toufik Hakkar. The clear-out confirmed rumours circulating in Algiers for weeks that suggested Tebboune is seeking to inject more dynamism into government and place key allies in prominent posts ahead of elections next year when he expects to stand again.

Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed AuKing Mining has raised $1.25m to fund drilling at the Mkuju uranium project in Namtumbo district.  

Dublin-headquartered investor TechMet has taken an option to invest up to $50m in London Stock Exchange-listed Rainbow Rare Earths’ Phalaborwa project in Limpopo province.

Houston-based Murphy Oil has said it will sell some non-core assets in North America to fund work on the Paon discovery in Block CI-103, one of five Côte d’Ivoire offshore blocks it picked up in June 2023.

 Sources say five more turbines are expected to come online at the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam in the coming months, adding a huge amount of capacity to the grid, even as questions remain over the megaproject’s economic impact and whether the infrastructure exists to increase exports. Meanwhile, Ethiopia faces the prospect of renewed conflict as tensions ratchet up with neighbouring Eritrea, writes Our Ethiopia Correspondent.

Infinity Power has signed a 20-year capacity charge agreement (CCA) with utility Société Nationale d’Electricité du Sénégal (Senelec) for the Taïba N’Diaye battery plant. The storage system will operate in tandem with Infinity’s nearby Taïba N’Diaye wind plant, which was commissioned in February 2020. According to African Energy Live Data, Taïba will be the largest on-grid battery energy storage system in West Africa by some distance.

London AIM-listed Arc Minerals has finalised its Domes region copper joint venture (JV) with mining major Anglo American – the latter’s first new Zambian investment in two decades.

London AIM- and Australian Securities Exchange (ASX)-listed Atlantic Lithium has been granted two new prospecting licences near its existing Ewoyaa acreage, where it is developing a spodumene pegmatite mine and ore processing plant.