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The Economic Committee of West African States (Ecowas) inaugurated the Nigeria segment of its regional off-grid electricity access project (Rogeap) in Abuja on 19 July. The project, which was initially launched in 2017, was restructured with additional financing and relaunched in 2020.

Schools have joined an increasing number of electricity users turning to alternatives to state utility Eskom as the energy crisis continues to take its toll in South Africa. As many as 41 schools in Western Cape province, with a combined capacity of 25.87MW, have applied to the Ministry of Education for connection to distributed solar PV systems.

Energicity has announced the completion of two mini-grids, at Takpatchiomè and Gougouta in the Couffo department. Energicity was awarded a construction, operation and maintenance contract for 20 mini-grids in the Zou, Couffo and Collines departments under the Off-Grid Clean Energy Facility (OCEF), one of five concessionaires to sign deals.

Husk Power Systems has commissioned six additional solar PV mini-grids in the Doma and Lafia areas of Nasarawa state.

Bboxx has concluded its acquisition of PEG Africa, giving the ­London-based firm access to four more African markets – Senegal, Côte d’Ivoire, Ghana and Mali – while it is also tying up with more major corporates, creating ventures with Orange in Democratic Republic of Congo and Unilever in Kenya.

Several off-grid mini-grid projects which stalled during the pandemic due to the rising cost of equipment and logistics are now struggling with the impact of sanctions on Colonel Assimi Goïta’s military regime.

Chronic power unreliability remains a blight in Nigeria – with half a dozen grid collapses so far this year – while the national grid remains woefully under-powered. Nigerians remain dependent on diesel and other back-ups, while big commercial and industrial (C&I) investments are being made by large private sector players. African Energy examines how the Dangote Group is becoming one of the country's major electricity generators.  

In his State of the Nation address on 13 February, President Cyril Ramaphosa reiterated several of the measures being taken to address South Africa’s power crisis. The speech takes place as Ramaphosa approaches two years in office without having procured any new capacity despite worsening load-shedding, aside from signing agreements with projects already selected in the fourth round of the country’s renewable energy IPP programme (REIPPP) in April 2018.

Commercial and industrial (C&I) power has experienced a tremendous boom in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), as companies look for alternatives to failing state utilities, not least in the continent’s largest economies South Africa and Nigeria.

Renewable energy developer Darway Coast Nigeria has raised a seven-year, fixed-rate local currency debt facility for a mini-grid programme in southern Nigeria, in the first transaction backed by the Infrastructure Credit Guarantee Company (Infracredit)’s Clean Energy Funding Programme (CEFP).

Winch Energy has completed and commissioned three solar PV and storage mini-grids in Alikalia, Kondebaya and Sambia-Bendugu villages. The mini-grids were installed as part of the second phase of Winch’s 24-site mini-grid project in Sierra Leone

Dutch development bank FMO has agreed a €500,000 ($598,000) convertible loan with power company ZIZ Energie to fund its operations in Chad. FMO joins investment company Energy Access Ventures (EAV) in backing ZIZ in a €2m funding round. EAV announced it was investing in the company earlier this year.

Gridworks, a company launched by the UK government-owned CDC Group, announced on 2 December that it has reached financial close on a R106.7m ($7.5m) investment in South African commercial and industrial (C&I) solar company Mettle Solar Investments. The transaction has been in the works since before Gridworks was launched at the Africa Energy Forum in Lisbon in June and the commitment was first announced in July.The deal will see Mbuvi Ngunze appointed as Mettle’s chairman and Gridworks chief executive Simon Hodson and director Chris Flavin join the board of directors.

Demand for commercial and industrial (C&I) power projects is surging, particularly in eastern and southern Africa. In key markets such as South Africa and Kenya, customers have opted for C&I solutions that not only offer cheaper tariffs but also greater reliability than the grid. These imperatives have also prompted a shift to C&I in the West African market, where the sector has seen considerable activity this year although market players still deem it to be ‘early days’.

The latest figures from African Energy Live Data suggest that Q1 2020 saw the lowest generation capacity additions in Africa for at least 20 years, with no new on-grid generation from February after coronavirus halted construction and commissioning