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The Ministry of Energy has signed an implementing agreement with German renewables developer infinity-E for the engineering, procurement and construction of a 6MW solar photovoltaic power plant at Newton, in the Western Area, some 38km east of Freetown. The project site lies along the route of the power line from the Bumbuna dam, and power will be supplied to the capital, though there are also plans to supply the town, named after the 18th century British campaigner for abolition of the slave trade John Newton.

Joule Africa has named Paul Kunert as its new chief executive as the power developer builds its senior team ahead of the construction of Sierra Leone’s largest infrastructure project, the Bumbuna II hydro scheme. Kunert, with 20 years’ African power experience gained at CDC, Actis and Globeleq, joined Joule Africa in September 2016 as chief operating officer.Joule Africa was co-founded by entrepreneurs Mark Green and Andrew Cavaghan, who will continue as executive chairmen, devoting their time to new business origination, stakeholder management, equity fundraising, and strategy, the company said.

The government launched a project on 13 February for the rehabilitation and extension of the Bo-Kenema Electricity Distribution System, with financial support from the African Development Bank (AfDB) and the UK Department for International Development. Construction contractors have not yet been selected.The project, which was approved in December, forms part of the government’s Post Ebola Recovery Programme. It will upgrade and extend a 33kV electricity line between Bo and Kenema and build new substations to improve supply.

Finland’s Wärtsilä on 10 November announced an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contract to supply a 57MW Smart Power Generation plant to CECA SL Generation Ltd, a Sierra Leonean company co-owned by CEC Africa Investments and TCQ Power. CEC is transferring its stake to CDC Group. The turnkey order includes six Wärtsilä 32 engines running on heavy fuel oil. The plant is expected to be operational within 18 months from the ground-breaking. Wärtsilä’s scope of supply includes the EPC of the power plant, plus 1.3km of fuel pipeline from the Kissy jetty to the site, and 8km of overhead power lines.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) has announced a commitment of $27m in senior debt to support the Western Area Power Generation Project, Sierra Leone’s first independent power project. IFC also acted as the lead arranger and interest rate swap provider to mobilise a further $109m in long-term financing from other development finance institutions, including the African Development Bank, CDC Group, the Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund and the Netherlands’ FMO. Abu Dhabi-based TCQ Power is developing a 57MW heavy oil fuel-fired power plant in an industrial zone about 4km outside Freetown.

AOG has sold a 75.1% stake in its Makeni bioethanol project to Sunbird Bioenergy, which is developing two similar projects in Zambia and Zimbabwe. AOG launched the project in 2008, planning an ethanol refinery and a 30MW biomass-fuelled power plant, to power the refinery and supply 15MW to the national grid. Sunbird chief executive Richard Bennett told African Energy in a telephone interview the power plant and 85m litres/yr capacity distillery were completed but not yet commissioned. Addax had planted 10,000 hectares of sugarcane, but had failed to obtain sufficient crop yields to make the project economically viable, while development was also delayed by the Ebola virus.

The World Bank Group announced on 14 July that it had approved a financing package for a $138m 57MW heavy fuel oil plant at the Kissy industrial site east of Freetown. The project, known as the Western Area Power Generation Project, is owned by CEC Africa SL, a special purpose vehicle owned 50.1% by Copperbelt Energy Corporation subsidiary CEC Africa Investments Ltd and 49.9% by Abu Dhabi-based Tempus Constant Qualitas Power Ltd (TCQ).

Developer Tempus Constant Qualitas (TCQ) Power is aiming for financial close in July on the 57MW first phase of its heavy fuel oil plant for Freetown, which will be Sierra Leone’s first independent power project. TCQ chief executive Karim Nasser told the Invest Sierra Leone 2016 forum in London on 5 May the joint venture of Abu Dhabi-based TCQ and Zambia’s CEC Africa Investment aimed to start construction in September 2016, for first power in December 2017.

Developer Joule Africa has bought partner Endeavor Energy’s stake in the Bumbuna II hydro project, giving it 100% ownership. Bumbuna II is the 202MW expansion of the 50MW Bumbuna scheme commissioned in 2009. The second phase project has been in development since 2011. Lahmeyer International has completed a feasibility study and managed a tender process to short-list Salini Impregilo and Hydrochina-Sinohydro, as potential engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) contractors. ERM is completing environmental and social impact studies in conjunction with local consultants Cemmats.

The African Development Bank board on 17 December approved a senior loan of up to $20m to finance the construction and operation of a 50MW heavy fuel oil fired power plant, plus interconnection facilities and a fuel pipeline in the Kissy district of Freetown. The project is being developed by Zambia’s CEC Africa Investment Ltd and Abu Dhabi-based TCQ Power Ltd, who signed a power purchase agreement in May 2014 for a total 128MW development.

The US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has approved five-year compact agreements with Benin and Liberia, worth $375m and $257m respectively, and a $44.4m threshold agreement with Sierra Leone. The grant packages are intended to develop infrastructure in the three countries, with a focus on electricity in line with the MCC’s intention to invest $2bn in support of the Power Africa initiative. Liberia’s compact agreement was signed with the MCC on 2 October but required ratification by the country’s House of Representatives and Senate before it could be passed into law.

The National Power Authority (NPA) has been replaced by the Electricity Generation and Transmission Company and the Electricity Distribution and Supply Authority (EDSA) with effect from 1 January in an unbundling aimed at encouraging private sector involvement. The Energy and Water Regulatory Commission will oversee the sector, enabling a separation of regulatory and commercial functions. EDSA will operate as bulk buyer. Unbundling of the sector was established by the National Electricity Law approved in November 2011. Boards of directors have been appointed for the new bodies, and staff from the NPA and Bo-Kenema Power Services have been transferred.

Minerals and other commodities sales have driven economic growth and inward investment in the Mano River Union (MRU) countries, as post-conflict Guinea, Liberia and Sierra Leone (and newer MRU member Côte d’Ivoire) have enjoyed the dividends of stability. Improved politics have raised the prospects for ‘transformational’ electricity interconnections across a long-underdeveloped region, and for offshore oil finds as investors move into polities too long submerged in militia conflicts and warlord economics. Basic services remain far from adequate but, as a work in progress, the MRU countries have delivered a generally positive story of Africa re-emergent.

African Petroleum Corporation has signed a contract to acquire more than 1,000km3 of 3D seismic on Block SL-4A-10, offshore Sierra Leone, in addition to the existing 3D coverage. Acquisition is expected to begin in Q3. The company was awarded SL-03 in April 2010, and the adjacent SL-4A-10 as part of Sierra Leone’s third offshore licensing round in 2012. Both licences are in their first exploration period. Exploration offshore Sierra Leone has so far failed to find commercial quantities of oil and gas, but African Petroleum says it has identified a number of prospects.

A power purchase agreement (PPA) signed by the Sierra Leonean Ministry of Finance and Zambia’s Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) for a 128MW heavy fuel oil power plant to supply Freetown has been ratified by the national parliament, opening the way for mandated lead arranger the World Bank’s International Finance Corporation to move towards financial close. This is expected in late 2014-early 2015 and construction will begin immediately thereafter, under a schedule that envisages commercial operation starting in Q3 2016. Tender documents are expected to emerge within the next four to five months.