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Blackout In Accra: Blame The Nigerians

Section: Power Deficit · April 4, 2013 · No comments |

Average supply of Natural Gas From WAGP Was Half Of Contractual Volume

The Ghanaian Government has a handy excuse for the rolling blackouts experienced in Accra and the country’s other major cities in recent times. President John Mahama told the Press on visiting the Aboadze Plant, under construction. ‘We know that the challenges started as a result of the breakdown of the West African Gas Pipeline, which we are working to fix’

In other words: ‘Nigeria’s gas is not reaching this place in enough quantity to fire our power plants’.

The Energy Minister, Joe Oteng-Adjei, told The Report, Ghana 2012: “The Primary causes for load shedding are a shortfall in power generation due to erratic supply of the gas supplied by Nigeria”. He had the facts. The supply in 2012 averaged around 55MMscf/d “instead of a contractual volume of 110MMscf/d, at an expected minimum of 90MMscf/d”. The minister admits that supply has stabilized, “but it has been consistently below the minimum 90MMscf/d and since the Volta River Authority(VRA) thermal facilities are now dual fired(light crude and gas), the unreliable supply of gas causes frequent switching between crude oil and gas. This has given rise to a number of problems”.

Aggreko to Supply 122 MW of Cross-Border Power to Mozambique and Namibia

Section: Power Deficit · March 14, 2013 · No comments |

Aggreko, the British Power Plant contractor, has signed Tri-Party Power Purchase Agreements (TPPA) with Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), the Mozambique power utility and NamPower, the Namibian power utility, to provide 122 MW of gas-fuelled power from the Aggreko interim power plant located at Gigawatt Park at Ressano Garcia, Mozambique. The agreement follows the authorisation by EDM for the direct supply of power by Aggreko to NamPower and will see the installed capacity of 122 MW split between the two utilities with EDM utilising up to 32 MW and NamPower up to 90 MW, based on the specific needs of both utilities.

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Gas To Power: Why The Darkness Will Linger

Section: Power Deficit · March 14, 2013 · 7 comments |

Nigeria arrived at 2013 still a long distance away from an eight year goal: to get its public power utility and private suppliers, to put l0,000Megawatts (MW) of electricity into the national grid, every day.
The target was set around the time that the Electricity Power Sector Reform Act(EPSRA) was signed into law in March 2005, four long years after the bill itself was first presented at the National Assembly.
President Umar Yar’adua elected to moderate the vision of his predecessor. He wanted to get the nation plugged in to 6,000MW of electricity by December 2009 and increase the wattage 10,000MW by 2011, when his mandate was supposed to end.

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UNITED CEMENT EXTENDS SERVICE AGREEMENT WITH WÄRTSILÄ

Section: Power Deficit · December 24, 2012 · 1 comment |

Wärtsilä, THE Finnish power plant contractor, has signed three year operations and maintenance (O&M) agreement covering the United Cement Company of Nigeria Ltd (UniCem) power plant. This is an extension to the current three year O&M contract expiring in 2012.

The power plant provides electricity to United Cement Company’s Mfamosing cement manufacturing plant, located north-east of Calabar in Nigeria’s Cross River State. It has an annual cement production of 2.5 million tonnes. The 47MW UniCem power plant is capable of operating on either natural gas or heavy fuel oil and is powered by three Wärtsilä 50DF dual-fuel engines.

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S.A Giant Plans A 175 MW Plant For Mozambique

Section: Power Deficit · December 24, 2012 · No comments |

Synfuels giant Sasol and Mozambican power utility EDM plan to build a $250Million gas-fired plant in the south of Mozambique.
The 175 MW facility will be owned as a joint venture by Sasol and EDM, with EDM taking a 51% stake. The plant will be fuelled by Mozambican gas from the Pande/Temane field, operated by Sasol.

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Siemens In Billion Dollar Windy Entry Into South Africa

Section: Power Deficit · December 24, 2012 · No comments |

Siemens has secured a $1.152Billion order to deliver 60 wind turbines for the 138MW Jeffrey’s Bay wind power plant in the Eastern Cape, South Africa.

The German firm will supply the wind turbines, each with a 2.3MW capacity and a rotor diameter of 101metres, for the Jeffrey’s Bay plant, in addition to servicing the wind turbines for a period of ten years.

The project is part of the construction of several renewable energy plants, which would cater to the country’s desire for clean electricity. Turbines and equipment will be delivered to a consortium comprising of Mainstream Renewable Power, Globeleq, Thebe Investment, Enzani Technologies, and Usizo Engineering.

Siemens says that this order marks its market entry into South Africa’s wind power sector.

Since July 2012, Siemens has received a total of 16 orders for over 270 onshore wind turbines from Europe and South Africa.

KenGen Plans 14 Portable Geothermal plants

Section: Power Deficit · December 24, 2012 · No comments |

Kenyan utility KenGen is planning to build 14 temporary geothermal plants with a total capacity of 65MW by 2014.
The scheme follows the completion of the piloting of a 5MW portable station in late 2011.

Each of the portable plants is expected to take about six months to complete. KenGen managing director Eddy Njoroge said that portable plants will allow early generation, unlike conventional plants that take nearly ten years to implement.

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Koreans To Build A Large Gas Fired Plant In Algeria

Section: Power Deficit · November 24, 2012 · 1 comment |

A South Korean Consortium has been awarded a $1.06 billion contract to build a gas-fired, combined cycle power plant in Algeria.

Daewoo International, Hyundai Engineering and Hyundai Engineering & Construction will install a 1,200-megawatt power plant in the country’s northeastern town of Ain Arnat. The power station is expected to be up and running by 2016. The turnkey contract was awarded by the state-run Algerian Society of Electricity Production.

US to Spend $3.9bn on ‘Smart’ Power Grid

Section: Power Deficit · November 5, 2009 · No comments |

America’s Department of Energy is investing $3.9bn in ‘smart grid’ technology, aimed at making power transmission around the country more flexible.

Steven Chu, the US Energy Secretary said the funds would help create a system to allocate electricity more efficiently. This will done through improved power lines by allowing batteries in hybrid cars to feed back into the grid when needed.

“Right now, the way we distribute energy, it’s like plumbing – it’s down the hill:’ he told reporters recently. When asked about people objecting to high-voltage power lines being built near their homes as part of a smart grid, Chu said he would appeal to US national interests.

Nampower Builds A 22MW Plant At Walvis Bay

Section: Power Deficit · November 5, 2009 · No comments |

Napower, the Namibian state power utility, has awarded Barloworld Namibia a $31 million engineering, procurement, construction and turnkey (EPCT) contract to build a new power station at Walvis Bay. The power station, to be named Anixas, will provide additional power to the fast-growing uranium-mining sector on the Namibian west coast. It will produce 21,5 MW using diesel-powered generator sets. The project is due for commissioning in December 2010.