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Gas To Power: Why The Darkness Will Linger

Shell-Afam-Power-Plant

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.


Dark Zim Lit Up By Neighbours

Namibia will help Zimbabwe ramp up power production from the current 450 MW to at least 750 MW at the Hwange thermal power station. Botswana is aiding Zimbabwe in the revival of the Bulawayo station.

NamPower invested $45million in the Zimbabwe power project, which includes the addition of two more generation units later in 2009. Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) is investing $8million in the revival of the 90MW Bulawayo station, with a view to boosting the capacity to 120MW.

The Hwange station is already using four units, all revived with the help of NamPower in return for the exportation of an unspecified percentage of the power produced to Namibia. Botswana Power Corporation expects to have a 50:50 share with Zimbabwe, so both countries will get substantial benefits out of the deal.

Zimbabwe has a lot of power generation infrastructure rotting at Harare, Manyame and [the] Kariba thermal power stations. Undeveloped projects include the Gokwe north power station, which has the capacity to produce 1 400 MW, the Lupane methane gas project which has a potential for 300 MW and the Batoka Gorge hydroelectric project, which can generate up to 1 600 MW.

The country’s hydroelectric potential remains underutilised, as it has many projects, which have been on the cards for years. Projects are stalled because investors, who left the country when the farm invasions began in are still largely unwilling to return. Zimbabwe has a peak demand of 2 000 MW, produces only 1 100 MW and imports up to 500 MW from neighbours Zambia, Mozambique and the Democratic Republic of Congo. It also has a stand-by agreement for emergency power supplies with South Africa.


Afam Power Plant Is Far From Ready

Shell Nigeria has completed one of the three, Open Cycle gas turbines in the Afam Power Plant, but the facility cannot run, in part because of the vandalisation of the Alakiri gas pipeline. This is contrary to the widespread rumour that the recent, slight improvement in Nigerian power supply was due to the commissioning of the Afam power plant.

The company plans three 147MW Open Cycle gas turbines, (totaling 441MW) and one 200MW steam turbine which, when coupled with the three gas turbines, makes the Afam plant the biggest combined cycle power plant on the African continent.

But there are several obstacles on the way to delivery.  The entire plant may be ready for commissioning a year from today, but the transmission grid, as it is, is not stable enough to transport the power.

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