Search results

State-owned utility Régie de Production et Distribution d’Eau et d’Electricité (Regideso) has launched an international tender to connect the Rusumo Falls hydropower plant on the Kagera River to the national grid. Bids are sought by 4 December for the design, supply, installation and commissioning of a 220kV line linking the Rusumo Falls plant via the northern city of Muyinga to the central city of Gitega, a 30kV line between Musasa and Muyinga, and substations at Gitega and Muyinga.

Solar off-grid company Distributed Power Africa (DPA) has announced the signing of a contract with solar PV panels and components manufacturer Canadian Solar for the supply of PV technology to be used in hybrid products for the African market. The deal is expected to help DPA, part of the Econet Group, to provide panels with a combined capacity of 25MW to clients across mostly Southern Africa for large industrial sites, the company said.

The Ministry of Energy is inviting prequalification bids for four solar photovoltaic (PV) projects to be developed by independent power producers as part of the United States’ Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC)-backed power sector development compact. The five-year $403m compact – funded with $375m from the MCC and $28m from the Benin government – has been active since 22 June 2017 and is the largest of several programmes backed by development finance institutions which are moving forward in the country.

The US Trade and Development Agency on 10 February approved a $1.1m grant to the Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation Gas and Power Investment Company to support development of a 1,350MW combined-cycle gas power plant in Abuja. The grant will fund technical, economic and financial studies for the plant which will be carried out by the US’ Continuum Associates and GE International Operations (Nigeria). The grant agreement was signed at the Nigeria International Petroleum Summit in Abuja.

The ratification of BP’s $900m gas exploration contract with National Oil Corporation (NOC) returns British relations with Libya to an even keel. As African Energy exclusively reported in November, Libyan Leader Muammar Qadhafi halted the deal to pressure the UK into allowing Lockerbie bomber Abdelbaset Ali Mohammed Al-Megrahi to be repatriated (AE 126/1).

With Songas planning a major expansion of its domestic gas-to-power operation, BG assessing the potential of its Ophir farm-in and several other deals in the works, Tanzania’s gas industry is becoming an emerging force in East Africa.

The New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) notified Hyperdynamics on 24 April that the company had fallen below its continued listing standards. The Houston-based company’s average global market capitalisation had been less than $50m over a consecutive 30 trading-day period and its stockholders’ equity is less than $50m. The company moved to the main NYSE from the NYSE Amex exchange in July 2011 after Ray Leonard took over as president and chief executive (AE 213/15), but shareholder enthusiasm has evaporated.

Investors led by Japan’s Marubeni Corporation have made a $26m investment in UK pay-as-you-go solar company Azuri Technologies. Azuri, which has offices in Nigeria, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda and Zambia, said the capital infusion would enable it to accelerate expansion in existing sub-Saharan Africa markets and roll out its solar lighting, TV and additional services into new markets. Azuri has sold more than 150,000 solar home systems and has adopted a comparatively cautious approach to building its business.

China’s Poly-GCL, which is developing the Calub and Hilala gas fields in the Ogaden Basin, has found more gas reserves as well as some oil during appraisal drilling. “In the appraisal wells the company drilled around Calub it has discovered additional gas reserve. If you remember we were talking about 4.7tcf of gas reserve. Now the recoverable gas amount reached 6-8tcf. The amount has increased significantly,” Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Natural Gas state minister Koang Tutlam told The Reporter newspaper.

Zimbabwe Energy Regulatory Authority (Zera) confirmed in early June that the beleaguered Zimbabwe Electricity Distribution Company (ZETDC) has applied for a tariff review for 2017, citing increases in the cost of power production. Zera acting chief executive Misheck Siyakatshana said a decision on the tariff review would have to wait until an audit of the utility’s operations and structures by Deloitte & Touche is completed. ZETDC is the transmission and distribution subsidiary of Zesa Holdings.

US anger over Ghana’s resistance to ExxonMobil and African disillusion with France is opening the way for a new British investment push into Africa.

Off-grid solar company BBOXX announced on 13 January that Africa Infrastructure Investment Managers (AIIM), part of Old Mutual Alternative Investments, has agreed an investment of $31m to acquire a minority stake in BBOXX’s operating companies in Democratic Republic of Congo, Kenya and Rwanda. The investment was made by AIIM’s African Infrastructure Investment Fund 3 and will allow the BBOXX companies to install 2m solar systems by 2022. AIIM chief executive Jurie Swart said the deal reflected the maturity of the off-grid sector as well as BBOXX’s ambition.

State utility Office National de l’Electricité et de l’Eau Potable (ONEE) has finally opened bids for 850MW of power to be generated at five sites, a key element in the Integrated Wind Energy Programme (PIEE), which aims to generate 2GW by 2020. Decisions on the 850MW element (tender no SP 40 311) have been delayed while ONEE has put together financing and bidders have contested some of the tough conditions requested for the build-own-operate-transfer scheme. These include the call for local manufacturing to be included in bids, notably from small and medium-size companies, along with technology transfer.

Algiers will offer blocks in the forthcoming bid round “that already have discoveries”, Energy and Mines Minister Chakib Khelil told delegates to the World Petroleum Congress on 1 July (AE 140/1, 136/3).

Faced with a fuel bill that has risen to a projected MD64bn ($8.7bn) this year from MD27bn in 2004, Morocco is looking to increase the role of renewable energy in the country’s generation mix.