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Following the scaling down of the Mmamabula project, BPC has selected Chinese companies to build the 600MW Morupule B plant.

President Yoweri Museveni has formally commissioned the 50MW Namanve thermal power plant, built by Jacobsen Elektro on the outskirts of Kampala to supply the Namanve industrial park and the national grid (AE 149/6). “With the commissioning of the plant, I am pleased to inform the nation that the power supply deficit at the evening peak is drastically narrowed to about 35MW. This necessitates limited load-shedding in the evening.

IPSA Group has reached agreement with Elitheni Coal to supply the coal for some 250MW of its initial power projects in the Eastern Cape.

South Africa’s Exxaro Resources has signed an agreement with Eskom for the supply of 14.6m t/yr of coal over the next 40 years for the Medupi power station.

Eskom has invited bids for the supply of flue gas desulphurisation (FGD) equipment for its Kusile coal-fired power station near Witbank, in Mpumalanga province.

The board of Richards Bay Coal Terminal (RBCT) will meet later this month to work out how it will handle additional coal exports from black-owned mining companies in 2009.

Faced with high tariffs and capacity shortfalls, Uganda is anxious to explore all possible means to increase generating capacity and cut its fuel bill while it waits for the Bujagali dam to come on stream in 2011.

Botswana could provide a model for privately and publicly financed energy business but the continent is still in need of a coherent strategy for speeding up projects and policy

The World Bank’s International Finance Corporation and Iceland’s Reykjavik Energy Invest (REI) have signed an agreement for the exploration and development of geothermal resources at Lake Assal (AE 132/9). The agreement is the first funded by IFC InfraVentures, a new $100m fund to support development of infrastructure in the world’s poorest countries.

CBM pilot drilling; EEPCo seeks Gilgel Gibe 3 links;Accra looks to nuclear power; Gurara Falls HEP scheme; Rural electrification tenders; Gariep hydro rehab; AfDB financing

DRC/ZAMBIA: Power supply to copper mines restored; EGYPT: Bids for nuclear consultancy; UGANDA: Nuclear bill passed

A new World Bank study has urged Rwanda to develop its geothermal energy potential to increase access to power and reduce dependence on imported fuels. The study, Building Science, Technology, and Innovation Capacity in Rwanda: Developing Practical Solutions to Practical Problems, examines efforts to build an economy based on science and technology, and suggests ways of moving the process forward.

The Nigeria-based Africa Finance Corporation plans to set up a 12MW heavy fuel oil power plant in Bissau, as part of a project to deploy emergency power and rehabilitate the transmission and distribution network (AE 132/22)

Engineering consultancy Parsons Brinckerhoff is building up its southern Africa and mining industry personnel, seeing a substantial business opportunity from coal-to-power and other minerals-related projects in the electricity-starved region. In recent appointments that PB believes will help expand its already substantial sub-Sahara business, Gavin Young has moved from being Johnson Matthey plc’s South Africa managing director to head PB’s expanding Craighall, Johannesburg-based operation, while mining and nuclear specialist Nick Edmunds has come from 17 years with Wardell Armstrong as director of mining. Edmunds’ role, the company said, “will enable PB to marry its power generation business with a growing requirement for mining services.”

Swedish independent power plant developer Nykomb Synergetics has signed a contract with Société Nationale d'Éléctricité du Sénégal (Senelec) for the construction of a 125 MWe coal-fired power plant in the village of Sendou, 35km south-east of Dakar.