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Zesco has drawn up plans to spend some $5bn over the next five years to expand its generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure and is now looking at ways to raise funds. But donor concerns are being raised about the sustainability of Zambia’s debt burden. Years of underinvestment in the power sector mean generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure has not kept pace with rising demand. State utility Zesco plans to spend an estimated $660m from its balance sheet this year to upgrade and expand power facilities, and a further 26.4bn kwacha ($4.7bn) over the next five years.

Load shedding caused by the 1 November collapse of a 40-metre-high coal silo at the 4,110MW-capacity Majuba generation plant has highlighted the vulnerability of South Africa’s national power supply (see AE View). Generation output was reduced from 3.6GW to 1.8GW, and fell to 600MW the next day. As a result, more than 2GW was shed from the grid. Staff had been evacuated after a crack was reported early in the afternoon, so there were no injuries. The silo, with storage capacity of 10,000 tonnes, had undergone a civil visual inspection by an external specialist in September 2013

After years of political isolation, Libya has emerged from isolation by signing agreements with France, Russia, Ukraine and Canada to develop a civil nuclear energy programme.

Edinburgh-based Bowleven on 1 June announced the start of drilling on the Zingana exploration well on the onshore Bomono permit, the first of two wells planned for this year. Zingana is located 20km north-west of Douala, and will target a Paleocene-aged three-way dip closed-fault block that was partially penetrated by shallow wells drilled in the 1950s. The well will be drilled to a target depth of around 2,000 metres.

The Portuguese government has finally reached a deal to sell its remaining 15% stake in the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric dam on the Zambezi River

Eskom has confirmed that chief executive Brian Dames will leave the beleaguered company at the end of March 2014. The move has been met with widespread concern as it follows the loss of influential chief financial officer Paul O’Flaherty in July. Dames has been at the helm since a public spat between previous chief executive Jacob Maroga and chairman Bobby Godsell in 2010 convinced the board that the utility needed new leadership (AE 175/4). Since then, Dames has been grappling with capacity constraints, major project delays and violent labour disputes at Eskom’s flagship projects, as well as a recent fatal incident at the Ingula pumped storage project site (AE 265/9).

Pressures on utilities and other state-owned enterprises will be a greater feature in the 2020s than in earlier debt crises. Reforms to the continent’s largest energy enterprises, Eskom and Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation, are integral to their macroeconomies emerging stronger. Unravelling the problems of malfunctioning parastatals in economies from Ghana to Madagascar already play a central role in governments’ reform commitments. Madagascan utility Jiro sy Rany Malagasy (Jirama) has attracted considerable funds to support its reform.

Australia’s Baraka Petroleum has announced that Petronas plans to withdraw from the joint venture exploring blocks Ta-11 and Ta12 in the onshore Taoudeni Basin.

Procurement for the $75m Ghana electricity distribution system reinforcement and expansion project funded by the African Development Bank will begin in October. The project has three components: reinforcement and extension of the distribution system, off-grid renewable energy electrification, and institutional development and capacity building.

Royal Dutch Shell and BP have offered the South African government a stake in the jointly owned Sapref refinery in Durban, according to reports from Johannesburg.

State utility Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) has launched a prequalification tender for the minimum 75MW Noor Tafilalet solar photovoltaic (PV) project, which is supported by the World Bank (AE 303/10). Companies have until 4 September to prequalify to develop, build (including civil works and equipment supply), operate and maintain (for an initial five years) three PV units on a turnkey basis. ONEE expects the plants to come on line in Q4 16 or Q1 17; if appropriate, up to 100MW can be installed.

The United States Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (Ofac) has lifted sanctions on National Oil Corporation (NOC)'s Benghazi-based subsidiary Arabian Gulf Oil Company (Agoco). The move is important because Agoco was included in early Ofac and other sanctions lists even though it had declared itself independent of its parent in Tripoli and was remaking itself

The Ministry of Energy is in talks with ExxonMobil for the Deepwater Cape Three Points (DWCTP) Block, with a petroleum agreement due to be signed as African Energy went to press. The block was previously operated by Vanco Energy Company, and then by Lukoil. It lies some 150km offshore in water depths ranging from 2,000 to 4,000 metres.The block is geologically analogous to Guyana, and the ministry said ExxonMobil’s Payara discovery had positive implications for DWCTP.

The Ministry of Power has signed an agreement with India’s Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd (BHEL) for the development of off-grid solar independent power projects across several locations, with the first to be in Bida, Niger State.

Ethiopian Electric Power is requesting expressions of interest from consultants to prepare or update feasibility studies for five hydropower plants. The work is being funded through the $122.5m African Development Bank (AfDB)-backed Mekele-Dallol and Semera-Afdera Power Supply for Industrial Development and Access Scale-up Project. Submissions are due by 8 March.Two lots are being tendered.