Search results

Libya’s independent national audit authority has cancelled two power plant construction contracts worth $700m awarded by General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) to Siemens and Turkey’s Enka Teknik in December because of irregularities in both the financing and the tender. African Energy understands that a powerful Tripoli-based militia may also have threatened violence to prevent the financing documents from being signed.

Pleas from United Nations secretary-general António Guterres for a cessation in hostilities to enable medical personnel in Libya to deal with the spread of coronavirus have been ignored. On 8 April, the UN Support Mission in Libya reported heavy shelling of a hospital in Tripoli. The perpetrators were not named but were most probably aligned with the Libyan National Army (LNA) led by the warlord Khalifa Haftar.

Libya has taken a new direction in its struggle to install enough generating capacity to bring to an end the debilitating and unpredictable power outages which have become a regular feature of life across the whole country, but it needs some luck to make its plan work. The contract recently signed between Siemens and General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) to rapidly install 1.34GW of power in Tripoli and Misratah, plus Mytilineos’ contract to build a plant in Benghazi and the completion of the Awbari plant would together provide enough capacity to cover peak loads, even in the hottest summer months.

The first units of the three gas-fired power plants under construction in Tripoli, Misrata and Tobruk will shortly be commissioned, according to statements from General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol).

The World Bank Group board on 17 September approved $150m from the International Development Association (IDA) and $10m grant from the Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme for the $288m Energy Access and Quality Improvement Project in Rwanda. The IDA financing includes a $75m loan and $75m grant.

Green hydrogen (GH2) pioneer CWP Global’s proposed project in Djibouti – with a possible extension into Ethiopia – highlights the Horn of Africa’s potential to become one of the continent’s future fuel hotspots, alongside Egypt, the Atlantic north-west running from Morocco to Mauritania, and the south-west margin from Namibia to South Africa.

Libya continues to suffer from a deficit in generation capacity despite the efforts of General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) engineers to keep power stations running and to maintain the national transmission grid against constant sabotage and vandalism as well as accidental breakdowns. While the worst breakdowns in the grid have been repaired, there is no prospect of additional generation capacity being made available before the hottest months of the summer when demand reaches its annual peak. Thoughts are therefore turning instead to efficiency measures that could reduce load.

General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) is facing a series of unprecedented threats to power generation and distribution across the whole country. Failures at a number of vital transformers and substations have effectively broken the national grid into a number of isolated networks. Combined with shortages of both diesel and natural gas, and the suspension of key development projects following the withdrawal of international partners, the company estimates that it has lost approximately 1,800MW – about two-fifths – of the 4,565MW of installed capacity.

In spite of severe budget problems caused by its inability to export oil and uncontrolled spending on subsidies and payments to militia groups, the government has found the cash to pay for a new emergency power programme just over a year after it signed one of the largest contracts in the history of temporary power with APR Energy. Part of the reason why further short-term generation capacity is needed is to compensate for damage to General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) facilities caused by militia conflicts.

Since late 2013, a disagreement between the Tebu and Zwai tribes in the region of Sarir, approximately 700km south of Tobruk, has deteriorated into bloodshed. The conflict has damaged the 450MW Sarir power station, one of the largest plants in the east of the country and the main source of power for the Man-Made River (MMR), and the plant is unlikely to be repaired for some time. On 1 February, fighters from the Brigade 427 militia, which is drawn from the ethnically Arab Zwai tribe, were reported to have fired a missile at the power station, damaging a pair of turbines.

Driving renewable energy projects forward in Libya and Algeria will be difficult for the foreseeable future. Neither country is yet close to having the necessary legislation in place to enable serious progress towards shifting power generation away from hydrocarbons. But in spite of this a number of deals are moving forwards and European governments are pushing hard to open opportunities for investment. Over the past month the UK government has supported events in both Algiers and Tripoli intended to promote opportunities for businesses to access renewable energy projects.

Libya will not face power shortages until at least 2015 as the new electricity ministry revives at least three investment projects initiated by the former regime. In an interview with African Energy, deputy minister for electricity and renewable energy Dr Mohamed Ali Ekhlat said “some projects are under construction which will meet demand for the next three to four years”.

A new IMF programme, six years after the ‘tuna bonds’ scandal erupted, points to Filipe Nyusi’s success at surviving through difficult times but, with just two years left before his second term ends, the president still has to show he has created an environment able to deliver LNG mega-projects, as the insurgent challenge continues and rival factions line up for a succession, writes Tom Bowker.

On 5 October, General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) deputy executive manager Dr Mahmoud Al-Warfalli told a news conference at the headquarters of the Government of National Accord (GNA) in Tripoli that the board had “met with company officials to ascertain the status of the network and to identify the main problems and tasks”. He said the result of this was an “integrated plan to resolve the crisis in three stages”. The first and most urgent of these is to overcome technical and financial blockages to bring out-of-service plants back into production.

Against the odds, General Electric Company of Libya (Gecol) has installed the first unit of a new gas-fired power station just outside Sirte, which is still under the control of Islamic State (IS). But this did not prevent Presidency Council leader Fayez Sarraj from dismissing the senior board the following day.On 16 July, the Ministry of Electricity announced on its Facebook page that the first 350MW unit of the Khalij-Sirte steam turbine power station had started operation.