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The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced ten new financing agreements for power projects with a combined value of $9m at the US-Africa Business Forum held in New York on 21 September. USTDA earmarked six grants worth $4.9m for projects in Kenya, a grant and two direct USTDA contracts worth $3.1m in South Africa, and a grant worth $856,386 in Sierra Leone. The agency has been increasing its support to power projects in the early stages of development in Africa with a series of grant rounds, the most recent of which closed on 26 September.

Independent power producer Diaz Wind Power, a subsidiary of United Africa Group (UAG), has secured the land for a 44MW wind farm at Lüderitz in Namibia’s south-western Karas region. A land lease agreement was signed with the Ministry of Environment and Tourism in late December paving the way for the construction of the project, UAG chair Martha Namundjebo-Tilahun announced on Twitter. The Namibian newspaper said the wind farm would cost an estimated N$1.5bn ($107.4m).

The 19.5MW Liouesso dam in the Sangha province of northern Congo was formally inaugurated on 29 May by President Denis Sassou-Nguesso. The Chinese-financed dam was built by China Gezhouba Group, which started work in 2012, while the transmission infrastructure has been built by China Machinery Engineering Corporation. It will supply power to the towns of Ouesso, Pokola and Mokéko, significantly improving supply in the province, where Société Nationale d’Electricité’s supply was previously limited to a 3MW diesel plant in the regional capital, Ouesso.

Eskom is in negotiations with miners for the possible development of a cost-plus coal mine dedicated to supplying the 4,800MW Kusile coal power project, Eskom senior project manager Karabo Rakgolela told the Mining Coal Symposium in Middelburg on 5 September. Cost-plus has proved controversial, with critics arguing that mines are not incentivised to operate efficiently under the structure, which involves Eskom paying for mining costs.

Government of Southern Sudan vice president Riek Machar has denied reports that the autonomous southern government has been calling for exploration ahead of the referendum on southern independence in 2011. Meanwhile, the national government has called on international oil companies to accelerate their operations, and, in the blighted territory of South Darfur, the governor has announced the start of exploration by Chinese operating company Petro Energy.

Work at the $150m 60MW Kinangop wind farm remains on hold amid continuing tensions with the local community, with project sponsors accusing local political leaders of reneging on agreements. Despite the lifting of a court injunction halting the project, the project owners – Norway’s Norfund and South Africa’s African Infrastructure Investment Fund II, part of Old Mutual – say work will not resume until the issues have been resolved. The situation is perhaps the most serious facing a private power project in Kenya, but land and compensation issues have also touched the 982MW Lamu coal power project and the 310MW Lake Turkana wind scheme, where an injunction was rejected but court proceedings are ongoing.

The Manitoba Hydro International-led project implementation unit at the Liberia Electricity Corporation has begun prequalification for an operation, maintenance and training contract for the 88MW Mount Coffee hydroelectric plant. Applications were invited in June 2014, but the Ebola crisis halted work at the site between August 2014, eight months into construction, and March this year. According to the revised schedule, commissioning of the first turbine is expected in December 2016.“It was decided to restart the prequalification process because the funding organisations wanted to attract a greater number of firms than was the case in the first round of the process,” project director William Hakin told African Energy.

The Commission de Régulation de l’Electricité et du Gaz (Creg) has awarded only one of seven solar PV projects tendered in June 2018. The 50MW project in Diffel, Biskra region, was awarded to the Power Generation consortium, which is majority owned by Algerian manufacturer Condor. The Ministry of Energy approved two tenders for the deployment of 200MW of solar PV capacity in June 2018.

The Ibhubesi Gas Project joint venture of Sunbird Energy and PetroSA has agreed a gas sales agreement (GSA) term sheet with Eskom Holdings for the supply of gas to the Ankerlig power station. Sunbird said the term sheet set the key commercial terms and processes for the finalisation of a binding GSA during 2015. The term sheet includes provisions for the supply of 30bcf/yr of gas for up to 15 years to the 1,200MW Ankerlig open-cycle gas turbine power station about 40km north of Cape Town, which presently runs on diesel.

China National Petroleum Corporation (CNPC) has revised its crude sales contract with the government, dropping the price at which it sells crude to the Société de Raffinage de Zinder (Soraz) refinery to $57, from $70 previously. The $70 price was fixed in the contract for the 20,000 b/d refinery signed in 2008 because the government wanted price stability, but at current market prices this makes the refinery’s production uncompetitive.

Liberia has won $50m of funding from the Climate Investment Funds for its Scaling-up Renewable Energy Programme (SREP) investment plan. The programme aims to improve access to power in rural areas through off-grid electricity schemes based on small hydro, solar, biomass, and hybrid systems. The investment plan has been organised into a single programme in order to lower costs and address capacity constraints.

GE’s power services business announced on 15 November that it had signed an agreement with Azito Energie to upgrade two gas turbines at the company’s combined-cycle power plant, adding up to 30MW of generation capacity. The project marks GE’s first GT13E2 MXL2 gas turbine upgrade order in sub-Saharan Africa.

DR Congo infrastructure mission; CAMCE to build Betsiboka hydropower plant: Zapatero government to finance PV installation; Sokoto State plans IPP

The US Overseas Private Investment Corporation (Opic) has approved up to $50m in direct financing to support the 459MW Azura-Edo power project near Benin City, in Edo State. Key contracts and debt financing agreements were completed early in May, allowing construction to start on the open-cycle gas turbine plant. The project is 97.5% owned by Azura Edo Ltd, whose equity holders are Azura Power Holdings Ltd (50%), which is majority owned by Mauritius-based Amaya Capital and US investment fund American Capital Energy & Infrastructure (ACEI), Macquarie Group and Old Mutual’s African Infrastructure Investment Fund 2 (30%), the UK’s Aldwych International (9.2%), Nigerian asset manager Asset and Resource Management Ltd (6%) and the Netherlands’ FMO (4.8%).

Following the announcement that Heirs Holding is to invest $2.5bn in the African power sector as a part of US President Barack Obama’s Power Africa initiative, Heirs Holding chairman Tony Elumelu has announced his company is looking to purchase two oil-producing blocks to supply gas to the Ughelli power plant and other power projects. Ughelli was recently purchased by Transnational Corporation of Nigeria (Transcorp), which is also controlled by Elumelu, a former chief executive of United Bank for Africa.