NEWS IN BRIEF


ETHIOPIA DAM IS NEARLY COMPLETE


Ethiopia’s Genale Dawa III dam- designed to generate more than 250MW - is near completion. The project, built on the Genale-Dawa River at a cost of $451mn, will raise the country's electricity installed generating capacity to 4,541MW. Launched six years ago, the 110 metre high and 426 metre long Genale Dawa III hydropower dam has the capacity to hold 2.57 bn cu m of water and generate 254MW. Ethiopia has the potential to generate 50,000MW from hydropower, 1.3 million MW from wind and more than 10,000MW from geothermal energy.


ESKOM CONNECTS THOUSANDS MORE


TO THE GRID


Eskom’s quest to achieve universal access to power in South Africa by 2020 has seen 35,000 new house- holds being connected to the electricity grid across the Eastern Cape for the 11 months ending in February 2017.


The new connections in the East- ern Cape are mostly within the rural areas of the province that have never experience aspiring to achieve universal access in the country by 2020. “We have intensified our imple- mentation programme throughout the country, and we intend achieving an additional 15 000 new connec- tions in the Eastern Cape before the end of the financial year on 31 March. We have connected over 94 000 new households in the province over the past three financial years and the journey continues,” said Mongezi Ntsokolo, Eskom’s Group Executive for Distribution.


€180M PACKAGE GIVEN TO KENYA BY EUROPEAN INVESTORS FOR POWER


A new agreement, signed by various governments and governmental organisa- tions, will enable Kenya Power to connect more ordinary households in 32 counties in Kenya to the national electricity network The new agreement will enable Kenya Power to connect many more ordinary households in 32 counties of Kenya to the national electricity network, using European bank soft loans and develop- ment funds to support the country's "Last Mile Connectivity" initiative.


The total financial package is worth about €180m and was put together by the European Union, the French Development Agency and European Investment Bank. It includes soft loans from French Develop- ment Agency of €90 mn and the EIB €60


mn, together with a grant €30 mn from the EU.


"The Last Mile Connectivity initiative is a vital part of Kenya's development," said Ambassador Dejak. "It helps ensure that the national power grid reaches as many households as possible, so that ordinary Kenyan people have direct access to cheaper and more reliable supplies of electricity.”


NIGERIA TO INVEST $15 BILLION IN THREE NEW POWER PLANTS


Companies, international power compa- nies and Nigerian investors, would be structured after the Nigerian Liquefied Natural Gas business model.


The Nigerian National Petroleum Corpora- tion (NNPC) will invest around US$15bn to build gas-based power plants in the West African country, contributing 4,000MW over the next decade.


The NNPC invetsment will result in around 4000MW of extra power being generated. The NNPC has said that three new power plants will have a combined output capacity of 3100MW, and would be built in Abuja, Kaduna and Kano. This coincides with the Abuja-Kaduna-Kano (AKK) route of the gas pipeline which is currently under construction. The Corporation’s Chief Operating Offi- cer for Gas and Power, Mr Saidu Mohammed, said the corporation would achieve this by building independent power plants over the next three to ten years. He said that the power plants, which would be built with Joint Venture


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The NNPC has interests in two power plants, one in Okpai, Delta State and the other in Afam, Rivers State. Both were built by joint ventures with Nigerian Agip Oil Company and Shell Petroleum Development Company.


“These two power plants collectively generate up to 1,000 megawatts and they are the most reliable and cheapest source of power to the national grid in Nigeria today,” Mr Mohammed confirmed. In order to make up the 4,000 megawatts required, plans are underway to build Okpai Phase 2, Obite and Agura power plants to boost power generation in the country.


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