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The start-up of the Kaléta dam in mid 2015 improved power supply for several months but low water levels mean that only one of the dam’s three turbines is able to operate. With insufficient thermal capacity to fill the gap, power cuts have again become commonplace in outlying districts of Conakry. An Electricité de Guinée (EDG) official told African Energy almost all the country’s available capacity at present is being produced by thermal plants in Conakry.

With the Programme for Infrastructure Development in Africa (Pida) framework endorsed by African leaders in 2012 returning the development focus to big dams, there is an increasing amount of research into how climate change may affect future water supply. Pida includes a Priority Action Plan which calls for an expansion of hydroelectric power generation capacity by more than 54GW. The listed priority projects, currently being designed on the basis of the historical climate, will jump to the head of the queue for donor funds and government approvals.

The government on 6 June signed an agreement with a Chinese consortium to build the 240MW Busanga hydro scheme. The dam will be built on the Upper Congo River in Katanga province, downstream from two existing hydro plants, primarily to supply Société Sino-Congolaise des Mines (Sicomines). Moïse Ekanga, director of the China-DRC cooperation office, said construction was expected to take five years. The Sicomines joint venture and the Busanga hydro scheme are part of a cooperation agreement signed with Beijing in 2007.

The 300MW Tarfaya wind farm has begun generating electricity and will be fully operational in October. The plant is being developed by GDF Suez, in partnership with Morocco’s Nareva Holding, at a site on the southern Atlantic coast. GDF Suez won the contract to construct the project on a build-own-operate-transfer basis in February 2013 (AE 248/8). The wind farm consists of 131 80-metre turbines. As part of efforts to secure its energy supplies and meet rising demand, Morocco aims to generate 2GW from wind and 2GW from solar by 2020, representing almost half the country’s total generation capacity.

The World Bank Group-administered Energy Sector Management Assistance Programme (ESMAP) is inviting expressions of interest from consultants to carry out a national multi-tier framework energy access household survey in Burkina Faso. ESMAP is supporting energy access surveys to establish a baseline to track progress towards Sustainable Development Goal 7, which covers access to an affordable, reliable and sustainable modern energy supply.

Kleinschmidt Associates has been awarded a contract funded by the US Trade and Development Agency to carry out feasibility studies for the Chilongo and Chimpili hydropower projects. Chilongo is being developed by MPF Development Consultants at Chilongo Falls on the Lufubu River in Kawambwa district, Luapula province. Chimpili is being developed by Bukota Company on the Kalugwishi River in the same district.

Compagnie Energie Electrique du Togo (CEET) has invited bids by 31 January for the rehabilitation of the 1.6MW Kpimé hydropower plant in the south-western Plateaux region. The plant, near Kpalimé, about 120km from the capital Lomé, comprises two 0.8MW units, and is the only hydropower plant owned and operated by CEET. The rehabilitation work, to be financed by CEET from its own funds, is expected to be completed within 16 weeks of contract signing, according to a tender notice published on 24 December.

The Ethiopian government has announced ambitious plans to expand its generation capacity to 37,000MW by 2037 from 2,300MW now, to meet growing domestic demand and supply the region. Ethiopia already exports 60MW to Djibouti and 100MW to Sudan, and is constructing a 500kV interconnection with Kenya, capable of exporting 2,000MW. However, under the new programme, the government aims to export 4,000MW to nine countries in the region, potentially expanding its network of clients to the Southern African Power Pool and countries in North Africa. Aimed at turning Ethiopia into a middle-income country by 2023, the Growth and Transformation Plan seeks to double access rates, increasing the number of Ethiopians connected to the grid to 4m and expanding electricity services to 75% of towns and villages.

In another sign of its growing presence in Africa, South Korea has agreed to provide a $35m soft loan to build three solar power plants in Mozambique.

The Ministry of Water and Energy and the Ethiopian Electric Power Corporation have given US companies Global Trade and Development Consulting and Energy Ventures a contract for three 100MW solar plants in the east of the country.The site selection, due diligence and feasibility study were completed earlier this year and the plants will be developed on a build-operate-transfer basis. Global Trade and Development Consulting is run by Ethiopian-born economist Yonnas Kefle. In 2010, the government launched its Growth and Transformation Plan, which aims to turn Ethiopia into a middle-income country by 2023.

Ethiopia’s plans to attract more foreign capital into its power industry took a step forward in late October as the government announced 14 projects that it wants to build and run as public-private partnerships (PPPs). The plan to attract private finance for the planned hydropower and solar schemes is a departure for a government that has borrowed heavily over the last decade from Chinese banks and elsewhere to construct large-scale dams such as Gibe III and the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam (Gerd), as well as for major transmission projects.

Energie du Mali (EDM) has invited expressions of interest from consultants by 14 May to carry out technical, economic, financial, environmental and social feasibility studies as well as elaboration of tender documents for the construction of two solar PV power plants in Kambila and Safo totalling 90MWp. The consultancy services are to be financed from French Development Agency (AFD) funding for construction of the northern section of the 225kV loop around Bamako.

The Ministry of Infrastructure, Natural Resources and Environment invites expressions of interest by 3 December from consultants to prepare feasibility studies for mini-hydropower plants and provide technical assistance to attract private sector and/or PPP investment.

Despite environmental campaigns against the Inga project, renewed support from Nigeria and South Africa has boosted optimism over its future both at the Ministry of Water Resources and Electricity and at the Société Nationale d’Electricité (Snel). “Don’t forget that this is a Congolese project that will be implemented anyway, with whoever is ready to embark on it,” a ministry official told African Energy. South Africa’s Eskom has already come forward as an anchor client, with an agreement to offtake 2,500MW from the 113-metre Inga 3 Basse Chute dam project (4,800MW), while Nigeria has expressed strong interest in an additional 2,400MW that will be generated by the second phase of Inga 3, the 7,200MW Inga 3 Haute Chute, which will raise the dam by 40 metres.

Zambia has pledged to maintain electricity supplies to the mining industry despite the expiry of the power supply agreement between Zesco and the privatised Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC).The bulk supply agreement (BSA) expired on 31 March, ending a 23-year-old arrangement for electricity supply to the country’s economic mainstay sector. The government says Zesco will continue supplying power to the Copperbelt for up to 12 months while a long-term solution is sought.