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The Export-Import Bank of India has agreed two more loans totalling $144.44m to fund transmission and distribution infrastructure to evacuate power from the Katende and Kakobola dams being built by Angelique International Ltd (AIL) and Bharat Heavy Electricals Ltd.The letter of credit agreements were signed in Abidjan during the African Development Bank annual meetings on 28 May. One was for $109.94m for the evacuation of power from the 64MW Katende dam in Western Kasai, and the other for $34.5m for power distribution from the 9.3MW Kakobola dam.

The government has issued a general procurement notice for a study on the integration of wind facilities into the Egyptian power system and modifications to the existing wind integration grid code

Vestas announced on 3 June that it has been appointed engineering, procurement and construction contractor for the 35MW Wesley wind project in the Eastern Cape. Wesley, also known as Wesley-Ciskei, was selected in the fourth round of the country’s renewable energy IPP procurement programme. EDF Energies Nouvelles made the order. The company is an 80% shareholder alongside InnoVent in the lead developer for the project, InnoWind.

Liberia Electricity Corporation (LEC) has invited pre-qualification applications by June 19 for operation and maintenance of the Mount Coffee hydropower plant. The run-of-river station on the St Paul River is scheduled to return to full operation by the end of 2016, following extensive rehabilitation of the plant’s infrastructure as well as uprating of its installed capacity to 80MW from its nameplate capacity of 64MW. LEC has appointed a joint venture of Norway’s Norplan and Germany’s Fichtner as owner’s engineer for the project.

The energy ministers of Zambia and Democratic Republic of Congo signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) in Kinshasa on 5 April setting out a new timetable for a joint 1,000MW-1,400MW hydroelectric project involving several sites on the Luapula River.The MoU sets 2021 as the date for finalisation of the feasibility study and environmental and social impact assessment (ESIA), the launch of construction tenders and the award of the contract. The previous deadline was end-2018.

German rental solar company Redavia has begun operating two mini-grids which will serve as pilots for a possible roll-out across the country. The two 89kWp solar photovoltaic and Qinous lithium-ion battery-powered mini-grids at Isenzanya and Shitunguru villages, in the Songwe region, could serve up to 1,000 households in the area. The projects are the company’s first community-based solar container plants. 
The projects emerged after Redavia began looking for new opportunities in Tanzania following the completion of its first project at Shanta Gold’s New Luika mine in 2014.

The 5MW Siti 1 hydro plant developed under Uganda’s global energy transfer feed-in tariff (Get FiT) scheme has started operations in the Mount Elgon area of eastern Uganda. The run-of-river plant will power 60,000 homes, schools and businesses. The Netherlands’ FMO arranged a $35m senior loan for the financing of the 5MW Siti 1 and the 16.5MW Siti 2 projects, developed and owned by Elgon Hydro Siti Limited.

Central Engineering Consultancy Bureau, a Sri Lanka consulting firm, acting on behalf of Rwanda Mountain Tea, a privately owned tea producer based in Kigali, has invited pre-qualification applications for construction of a 5MW hydropower project on the Giciye River in northeastern Rwanda.

Amendments to the 2006 Electricity Regulation Act (ERA) which came into force on 10 November threaten to undermine the rapidly growing industry in off-grid and embedded power generation in South Africa, industry stakeholders say. The amendments, drawn up by previous energy minister Mmamoloko Kubayi, are to schedule 2 of the act, which sets out exemptions from licensing. The new regime introduces a number of changes significantly increasing the risk and cost of developing small projects, raising concerns that promising growth in the sector could be undermined.

Construction of the 34MW Kinguélé Aval hydropower plant on the Mbéi River in north-western Gabon is scheduled to start in Q2 2020 following the signing of a concession contract in late October. France-based investment fund Meridiam announced on 24 October the signing of a 33-year concession contract with the government for the run-of-river power project, which is to be developed in consortium with state investment fund Le Fonds Gabonais d’Investissements Stratégiques (FGIS).

Joule Africa plans to release tender documents later this year for the second phase of the Bumbuna hydro project. The US Joule Investments Group subsidiary told African Energy six companies had pre-qualified for the project and had confirmed they planned to bid. Tender documents are awaiting government approval. Joule hopes to bring the extension on stream in 2017-18, depending on when the project reaches financial close. Energy from Bumbuna will be sold to a central state-owned buyer.

Senegal’s latest privately owned utility-scale solar photovoltaic (PV) plant was inaugurated on 16 January by Prime Minister Mahammed Boun Abdallah Dionne, cementing the West African state’s position as the leading regional solar power producer. The Ten Mérina plant in Mérina Dakhar, Tivaouane region, 120km north-east of Dakar, was developed by an all-French consortium of investors and contractors, led by investment fund Meridiam, in partnership with construction group Eiffage, and Engie’s Solairedirect unit. Eiffage and Solairedirect built the plant and grid connection, and will be responsible for operations and maintenance.

No public money is available to support Algeria’s ambitious renewable energy development programme, which remains a high national priority despite the lack of projects. So support for solar and wind projects will have to come from the private sector and mostly from international companies, according to the most recent statements from energy minister Noureddine Bouterfa, who says the programme will now be rebooted. But despite the low global oil price and domestic fiscal austerity, it is far from clear that Algeria is ready to return to international project financing, which has been outlawed for more than a decade. The sector may fall back on the tried and tested backstop of bringing in state-owned oil and gas company Sonatrach to fill the gap.

Burkina Faso, Democratic Republic of Congo, Morocco, Mozambique and Zambia presented investment plans and projects for approval at the Climate Investment Funds (CIF) partnership forum in Cape Town on 24-25 June, hosted by the African Development Bank (AfDB). New projects included:

AOG subsidiary Addax Bioenergy is close to completing Sierra Leone’s first independent power project, a 32MW plant generating electricity from ethanol. The plant is part of a $300m project launched in 2008 which includes a 10,000ha sugar cane estate to produce 85,000m3/yr of ethanol, mostly for export, and some 120GWh/yr of renewable power (AE 263/8). A minimum of 15MW of surplus power from the ethanol plant will be supplied to the National Power Authority (NPA) grid, representing about 20% of Sierra Leone’s modest generation capacity. Isgec John Thompson is providing the power plant, while Cegelec will build 10km of high-voltage transmission lines.