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Sudan’s energy sector has a history of mismanagement and bad value deals going back many years. Its record of failure started under Omar Hassan Al-Bashir (head of state under various titles from 1989 until 2019) and worsened under the ineffective successor civilian administration.

Electricity industry activity is accelerating fast, driven by an old school approach to contracting, and while the revamped Supreme Council for Energy Affairs (Scea) under Prime Minister Abdel Hamid Al-Dabaiba continues to push gas-to-power projects, Libya may finally be joining the renewables party too, with signs of movement on several solar PV projects, writes John Hamilton.

Despite calls from some governments for sub-Saharan Africa to use its natural gas resources and build more gas-to-power plants, it is hydroelectric power that will drive the biggest growth in electricity generation in the region over the next five years, according to analysis of African Energy Live Data’s project pipeline to 2027.

A project to build a €430m ($475m) gas-to-power (GTP) plant in the northern coastal city of Saint Louis by the previously obscure local developer Ndar Energies has attracted criticism by civil society and academic figures for the lack of transparency around the contract award.

A 600kW gas-fired power plant developed by Genesis Energy has started operating at the Malian Cashew Corporation’s factory in Diatoula, south of the capital Bamako.

The restart of the 970MW Unit 1 at Koeberg nuclear power plant has been delayed due to “unexpected challenges”, according to state utility Eskom. The unit was switched off in December for regular maintenance and refuelling; it had been due to return to service by 23 July.

National utility Eskom says it plans to submit a final application to regulators in April to allow it to exceed the emissions limits at the troubled Kusile coal-fired power station while repairs are carried out.

US player West Africa LNG has a $300m deal to build a liquefied natural gas import and distribution terminal to supply gas to power-hungry miners and to-be-developed alumina processing facilities in a country where previous efforts to expand the grid have faltered and significant additional generation capacity will be required to develop alumina processing at scale. Chaired by a former US ambassador to Guinea, WALNG has yet to expand on financing and other critical details.

Tlou Energy said on 15 March it had started the next stage of its Lesedi gas-to-power (GTP) project in Botswana, with drilling commencing on a core-hole ahead of the spudding of an additional gas production well.

HDF Energy and Zimbabwe Electricity Transmission and Distribution Company (ZETDC) have agreed to develop Zimbabwe’s first green hydrogen power plant, with the French GH2 developer promising financial close soon.

Plans by Eskom to build a 3GW CCGT plant at Richards Bay may yet go ahead, following reports that regulator Nersa had reversed its previous opposition to the scheme. A Nersa spokesman told African Energy the energy regulator had yet to make a final decision on the matter.

Rössing Uranium, operator of Namibia’s oldest uranium mine, is inviting expressions of interest (EoI) for electricity supply, with three potential options on offer to bidders.

The Department of Forestry, Fisheries and the Environment’s rejection of all three of Karpowership South Africa’s environmental impact assessment applications has thrown the Turkish company’s – and other departments of government’s – emergency gas-to-power plans into disarray once more.

Zambian President Hakainde Hichilema has confirmed plans to press ahead with a previously shelved plan to double output at a coal-fired power plant, with the aim of expanding baseload power generation.

Niamey hopes the construction of a pair of thermal power plants with total capacity of 111MW will break its dependency on Nigerian electric power, but little is known about Moulaye El Arby Baba Aïnina, the Mauritanian businessman with mining and cement processing interests in Guinea who has financed the $130m investment.