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With IFIs lining up to support the UN’s Sustainable Energy for All initiative, the European Investment Bank is looking to play a significant role in kick-starting investment

Kenya Electricity Transmission Company (Ketraco) has given Iberdrola Ingenieria y Construcción a $57.3m contract to build five new 220/66kV substations and upgrade one substation as part of the Nairobi Metropolitan Ring transmission project. The contract was awarded on 1 November and the project is expected to be completed in 18 months.

A planned international tender for 4,000MW of solar photovoltaic (PV) power marks a shift in gear for the energy sector and its attitude towards foreign investment. Opening the energy sector to global capital has been, for some time, the obvious solution to the fiscal and social pressures created by a decline in hydrocarbons production and low oil and gas prices. But in Algiers, national considerations have often trumped economic logic.

Finnish consulting and engineering company Pöyry plc announced on 23 January that it has been appointed by national utility Zesco to carry out further environmental and social studies for the long-delayed 750MW Kafue Gorge Lower hydropower project, which is located 60km south of Lusaka on the Kafue River.Construction of the plant is under way, with President Edgar Lungu attending a ceremony marking the diversion of the river in October last year.

The government has introduced regulations under which power utility Sonelgaz will pay feed-in tariffs to independent power producers using renewable or efficient technologies. On 18 June, Prime Minister Abdelmalek Sellal signed an executive decree laying down the terms and conditions under which independent generators would qualify for premium prices. However, it may take one to two years before industry regulator the Commission de Régulation de l’Electricité et du Gaz (Creg) formally fixes the tariffs.

State utility Régie de Production et Distribution d’Eau et d’Electricité (Regideso) has given a joint venture of Italy’s CMC di Ravenna and Egypt’s Orascom Construction a contract for the construction of the Jiji and Mulembwe hydropower plants with a combined installed capacity of 48MW. The contract, valued at €67.8m ($75.94m), was signed on 17 October, according to a notice published on the World Bank’s project and procurement website.

Austrian technology group Andritz announced on 6 March that it had received an order worth more than €120m ($141m) to supply hydro and electromechanical equipment to the 350MW Abdelmoumen pumped storage project on the Issen River in Taroudant province. Andritz is part of a joint venture led by France’s Vinci Construction Grands Projets which will build the plant for Office Nationale de l’Électricité and de l’Eau Potable.

The Donors and Investors Conference for Madagascar held in Paris in December brought promises of investment worth $6.4bn to support the National Development Plan, which runs from 2015 to 2019, nearly $1bn more than the country was seeking. The World Bank Group promised $1bn in grants and concessional loans as well as $330m from the International Finance Corporation (IFC). The African Development Bank and European Union are also significant donors, with the EU funding transmission lines and substations. The IFC is targeting investments in “agribusiness, infrastructure, especially renewable energy and transport, and finance”, said IFC regional director Oumar Seydi.

In his State of the Nation address in Cape Town on 9 February, President Jacob Zuma unexpectedly announced that all power purchase agreements (PPAs) awarded to independent power producers (IPPs) would be signed. Eskom has been refusing to sign new PPAs with renewable energy IPPs since mid-2016, arguing that the power was no longer needed and that additional capacity would only increase tariffs for the consumer.“Eskom will sign the outstanding PPAs for renewable energy in line with the procured rounds,” Zuma said.

The Ministry of Industry, Energy and Small Business has prequalified 19 bidders to participate in the first round of its large wind and solar build-own-operate tenders. The bidders include a mix of established partnerships with a record of achievement in the region and a large number of market entrants with substantial experience of project development in other countries. As several of the candidates are consortia with up to three members, a total of 32 companies are involved.

Mozambique’s Energy Fund (Funae) is inviting bids from consultants to carry out feasibility studies and advise on procurement of 11 solar PV and battery mini-grids. The deadline for submissions is 19 May.The contract is expected to last 12 months. The mini-grids are being developed on a public-private partnership basis. The independent power producer will be responsible for financing, operating and maintaining the generation facilities through power purchase agreements with Electricidade de Moçambique (EdM).

The UK is planning a first British Renewable Energy Trade Mission to Morocco, on 10-11 November, in a push to raise the number of British firms working in the kingdom. UK trade envoy to Morocco Lord Sharman and National Agency for the Development of Renewable Energy and Energy Efficiency (Aderee) head Saïd Mouline will be among keynote speakers at a seminar. UK Trade & Investment (UKTI) Casablanca representative Fatima-Zahra Kerdoum said other countries had moved more quickly to win orders from the renewables boom.

The International Finance Corporation (IFC) is considering supporting the construction of the 34MW Kinguélé Aval. The private investment arm of the World Bank disclosed on 18 June that it will propose an A Loan of up to €40m, a senior concessional loan from IFC as implementing entity of the Canada-IFC Renewable Energy Program for Africa of up to $25m as well as risk management products such as interest rate and/or cross currency swaps.

After two years of negotiations, Sithe Global and Industrial Promotion Services (IPS) initialled term sheets for the 147MW Ruzizi III hydroelectric project on 18 September with the Communauté Economique des Pays des Grands Lacs (CEPGL). The agreement confirms the companies as successful bidders and gives them the go-ahead to negotiate specific contract terms over the coming months. The project is the third in a series of hydro schemes on the Ruzizi River, which connects lakes Kivu and Tanganyika on the borders of Democratic Republic of Congo, Rwanda and Burundi. The 30MW Ruzizi I and 44MW Ruzizi II plants are being rehabilitated, and a 287MW Ruzizi IV scheme is still at the planning stage.

Officials from Burundi, DRC and Rwanda are expected to meet potential investors in Kigali in March to put together an estimated $500m financing package for the planned Ruzizi III HEP scheme, which would supply electricity to all three partner states.