European Union member states Energy Ministers are divided over whether to cap Russian gas prices, as they met to work out steps to shield citizens and businesses from sky-high energy bills.
At least 10 of the Energy Ministers from the EU members including Italy, Greece and Poland are reported to have opposed the bloc’s slapping of a price cap on Russian gas over concerns that Russian Leader Vladimir Putin might retaliate with a complete halt of gas supply to the whole Europe.
Oilprice.com which carried the news cited a report by Financial Times as the EU member states energy ministers meet on Friday, September 9, 2022, to discuss measures to ease the burden of energy crisis on consumers.
Friday’s ministerial talks aim to whittle down options for further discussion, rather than reaching a final decision on ways to tackle a crisis fueled by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. But many said agreement and action needed to be swift.
“We are in an energy war with Russia,” Czech Industry Minister Jozef Sikela said in a report filed by Reuters.
Minister Jozef Sikela further, said: “We have to send a clear signal that we would do whatever it takes to support our households, our economies.”
Energy bills, already surging as demand for gas recovered from the COVID-19 pandemic, have rocketed higher since the Ukraine war. As Russia has reduced gas deliveries to Europe following the imposition of Western sanctions, EU governments have scrambled to limit the resulting energy price shock.
An EU proposal to cap Russian gas prices has so far failed to win support from a majority of countries, with Russia threatening to completely cut off the dwindling supplies that have continued to flow if such a step is taken.
Baltic States are among those backing the idea, saying it would deprive Moscow of cash to fund military action in Ukraine.
“Russia has said if you want our gas, take down the sanctions. It is blackmail. We cannot back down, we have to be united, we have to have the political will to help Ukraine win,” Estonian Economic Affairs Minister Riina Sikkut said.
But central and eastern European states, many of them more reliant than others on Russian fuel, fear losing all their supplies, while some question whether a cap would have much impact on reducing prices when deliveries are so low.
“If price restrictions were to be imposed exclusively on Russian gas, that would evidently lead to an immediate cut-off in Russian gas supplies. It does not take a Nobel Prize to recognise that,” Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said.
German Economy Minister Robert Habeck said EU ministers should give Brussels the green light to prepare legislation to decouple the gas price from the price consumers pay for power from other energy carriers.
The European Commission this week said it would propose a measure to claw back revenues from non-gas power generators and spend the cash on cutting consumer bills.
According to Reuters, a draft of the Commission proposal, would cap at 200 euros ($201.74) per megawatt hour of revenues non-gas producer receive. It would apply to wind, nuclear and coal generators.
European power prices are typically set by gas plants, so the cap would aim to skim off excess profits made in recent months by non-gas producers that have lower running costs but have still been able to sell their power at soaring prices.
“The measures the Commission has recommended in taking some of those excess profits and recycling them back into the households makes sense,” Irish Environment Minister Eamon Ryan said.
But France, home to Europe’s biggest nuclear power fleet, questioned whether the same limit should be applied to all non-gas generators.
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Nigeria has advised Europe to provide the appropriate policy framework for their banks to facilitate their investment Africa’s in oil and gas sector.
The West African nation’s Minister of State for Petroleum Resources, Timipre Sylva, gave the advice at the Gastech Conference in Milan, Italy.
“Europe should significantly back investment in gas and provide a policy framework that enables European banks to invest in hydrocarbons across Africa,” he said.
Focusing on gas production in Africa is “a no-brainer”, Timipre Sylva said, with 600 million people living without electricity in Africa and 740 billion feet, 22.2 billion meters of gas reserves on the continent.
Increased gas production would also help the continent’s 900 million people who live without access to clean cooking fuels, provide massive job opportunities and allow the emergence of a new alternative supplier for Europe, a “win-win for Europe and Africa”, he said.
And it is in Europe’s own interest “to reduce discriminatory investment rules that the banks are doing”, Sylva said.
The Minister said that he had previously told European officials that they “must provide the appropriate policy framework for your banks, so that they can invest in oil and gas”.
The EU’s energy taxonomy, set to come into force in January 2023, is a voluntary tool and a signpost for private investors towards climate neutrality. But investment from large European banks in oil and gas fell in 2021, unlike their north American counterparts.
Speaking from a similar position Ghana’s Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh also called for more investment.
“Africa has been chronically under-invested,” he said.
“No country should be told to stay where it is,” he added.
The issue of European investment in African hydrocarbons had previously risen to the fore during European Commission president Ursula von Der Leyen’s visit to Senegal in February. Senegalese President Macky Sall said that cutting off funding for new gas exploration would be a “fatal blow” for emerging African countries.
Also, Indian oil and gas Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri welcomed the shift in the popular narrative away from the “ideological hang-up about not using or not extracting the gas reserves you have”.
“Gas is a clean fuel, if you have it why don’t you use it,” he said. He added that it is time to “step on the gas on all the plants, whether it is wind, solar, innovations, compressed biogas”.
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Oil and gas workers in the Federal Republic of Nigeria have threatened to embark on a nationwide strike over rising cases of oil theft and pipeline vandalism.
The workers under the umbrella body-PENGASSAN at a press conference addressed by the President Festus Osifo, said government must gather political will to chase out oil thieves vandalising the nation’s pipelines.
According to them, the oil theft has crumbled Nigeria’s economy, insisting the union will no longer sit back and watch.
The Union’s President said, beginning Thursday, they will organise rallies in Lagos, Port Harcourt, Warri, Kaduna and Abuja to show its anger over the menace.
He lamented that due to oil theft, Nigeria can no longer meet the OPEC quota of 1.8 million barrels per day, even as the country struggles to produce a million barrels.
Osifo said the union had dialogued with critical stakeholders, agencies of government and service chiefs on how to curb the menace.
He said series of meetings had not yielded desired result because cartels are feasting on the economy.
“This is a menace that is overtaking the country. This is the reason Nigeria keeps borrowing to finance the national budget. Enough is enough! We have to add our voices to the current struggle. It is not going to be a one-off thing. Companies are shutting down; our members are losing their jobs in services and production companies,” Mr Osifo said as reported by orientalng.com.
He urged service chiefs to hold officers manning pipelines accountable, stressing that anyone who compromises should be made to face the law.
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Ghana’s petroleum downstream regulator, National Petroleum Authority (NPA), has initiated steps to partner with the Togolese Directorate in charge of Environment to monitor the Trans boundary movement of waste oil between the two West African nations.
Some unscrupulous persons in the two countries have been smuggling finished petroleum products under the guise of transporting waste oil.
It is for this reason that the two institutions want to collaborate in sharing information between them to curb the illegalities.
To start the processes, the NPA’s Deputy Chief Executive, Mrs. Linda Asante, has led a delegation to visit the Togolese Directorate in charge of Environment in Lome, Togo, headed by Miss Mery Yaou, to begin a discussion on how the two institutions can partner to deal with the issue.
Mrs. Asante said that while she was aware of the Basel Convention which provides the framework for such activities, waste oil activities have become an issue of grave concern in Ghana, saying, “This is the reason for which the NPA seeks to have a working relationship with the Directorate in Togo.”
Corroborating, Miss Mery Yaou, the Head of the Directorate, said the visit was very timely especially because they also have, in recent times, had concerns with waste oil activities, particularly on how waste oil delivered to Ghana is disposed off.
She assured the NPA of her institution’s support and close collaboration to ensure a robust system is put in place for effective monitoring of waste oil activities.
The NPA team also visited its counterpart in Togo, the Comité de Suivi des Fluctuations des Prix des Produits Pétroliers (CSFPPP) and the Togolese Port Authority, which is responsible for the management and oversight of all port infrastructure including the Oil Jetty.
Mrs. Asante expressed the NPA’s interest in discussing more business opportunities which can be exploited by players in both countries.
The discussion also centred on how to map out strategies to enhance efficiency in export trade while instituting measures to combat illegal practices in the trade.
In a related development, the NPA team also paid a visit to the project site of Sanol Gas (an LPG marketing company in Togo) where there is currently the construction of a 3000MT capacity LPG Tank Farm.
The visit was to explore business opportunities between the two countries in the LPG sub-sector.
Mrs. Asante informed Sanol Gas of the review of the existing guidelines which seeks to make the export process more business-friendly and facilitate trade.
She further appealed to Sanol Gas to reconsider Ghana as a country of choice for its LPG supply.
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Liberia’s Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) delegation is in the Republic of Ghana to understudy the operations of the West African nation’s energy sector agencies.
The delegation, being hosted by Ghana’s technical electricity regulator, Energy Commission, embarked on a study tour of Ghana Grid Company (GRIDCo).
The guests were taken through the technical operations of the National Interconnected Transmission System (NITS).
Ing. Mark Baah briefing the delegation on what goes on in the System Control Centre
The delegation was also taken through an overview of the operations of the Dispatch Centre popularly known as the System Control Centre.
The Liberian team will also visit other utility companies including CENPOWER Generation Company, ECG’s Winneba substation, VRA’s mini-grid site and VRA’s Hydro generation station in Akosombo to study relevant areas of their operations.
The initiative forms part of the steps taken to rebuild and reform the Energy Sector of Liberia.
The Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) is a statutory body created by the 2015 Electricity Law of Liberia to oversee and regulate the sector.
GRIDCo is Ghana’s power transmission company and currently manages 6472.23 kilometres of transmission lines.
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The Government of Ghana is working assiduously to ensure that at least 50 per cent of the 31 million Ghanaians will have access to safe, clean and environmentally friendly LPG by 2030.
This is according to the country’s Deputy Minister for Energy, William Owuraku Aidoo.
Speaking at the launch of the National LPG Promotion Programme in Obuasi, Ashanti Region, William Owuraku Aidoo said the Government of Ghana, over the past years, has undertaken programmes, activities and initiatives toward promoting Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) as a safer, cleaner and healthier form of cooking fuel for households.
The Deputy Minister, who is also the MP for Afigya Kwabre South in the Ashanti Region, noted that the various promotional programmes carried out by the government over the years have led to some major investments in the LPG sector.
Consequently, he said access to LPG has increased over the years to the current 25.3 per cent.
“We have a more ambitious target. In the National LPG Promotion Policy, Government has set a target that at least 50% of Ghanaians should have access to safe, clean, and environmentally friendly LPG for domestic, commercial and industrial usage by 2030.”
He continued: “Government recognises that the initial investment required to switch to the use of LPG remains a barrier. Ordinarily, the initial investment cost for a domestic user may include purchasing an LPG cylinder, cookstove, regulator, rubber hose and clippers.”
Mr. Owuraku-Aidoo further encouraged beneficiaries of the government’s intervention to sustain the use of LPG and not revert to firewood and charcoal, saying: “LPG is the safest, cleanest and healthiest form of cooking fuel available today and we urge all Ghanaians to switch to LPG now.”
On her part, the Queen-mother for Akrokeri and Chairperson for the event, Nana Serwaa Bruwaa II, called for massive support for the programme as they work towards decarbonising the country.
The government envisages that the rollout of the National LPG Promotion Programme using the Cylinder Recirculation Module as a vehicle for distribution will help Ghana achieve its goal in the use of LPG as a clean, safe and healthy cooking fuel and to satisfy Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7; which is affordable and clean energy and SDG 13; which is climate action.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Russian President Vladimir Putin has threatened to retaliate against any move by the European Union to cap the price of Russian gas by halting flows completely and suggesting a deal allowing Ukrainian grain to be exported to world markets could be disrupted.
Addressing an economic conference in the Russian Far East late on Wednesday, Putin referred to the EU’s proposed cap on Russian gas prices as “yet another stupidity, another non-market decision that has no future”.
The Russian president said such a move by Europe could result in more price hikes.
Putin also noted that Russian piped gas is “many times more competitive than the liquefied natural gas shipped across the ocean”, in reference to the higher price Europe is paying to stock up on American LNG as a replacement. He vowed to ignore “political decisions that contradict contracts”.
“We won’t be supplying anything if it runs counter to our interests,” state-run Tass News Agency reported him as saying. “Those who are imposing whatsoever on us are not in a position to tell us what they want. Let them think about it.”
EU ministers are set to discuss gas cap measures on Friday.
Putin also threatened to disrupt the UN-brokered deal that has seen Turkey mediate shipments of Ukrainian grain from Odesa to world markets via Istanbul, suggesting that only wealthy countries are receiving this grain.
Ukraine and Russia cut a deal with Turkey and the UN in July in order to avert a global food crisis due to large volumes of Ukrainian grain blocked from leaving ports.
Putin called the grain deal “another outrageous deceit” and vowed to “have a word with the Turkish President”, saying Russia and other poorer countries were not benefiting from the deal. The Russian president said that for the time being, Moscow would continue with the deal but suggested he would be looking for concessions.
Source: Oilprice.com
UK’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss says she was against the windfall tax on oil and gas companies operating in the UK, reiterating her commitment to focus on developing domestic energy resources.
“I am against a windfall tax. I believe it is the wrong thing to be putting companies off investing in the United Kingdom,” the prime minister said, as carried by Reuters.
Following months of rumors and indecision, the UK government announced at the end of May a 25% Energy Profits Levy, commonly referred to as a “windfall tax”, as part of a package to ease the cost-of-living crisis stemming from huge rises in household energy bills.
The move, which was implemented with immediate effect, has long been opposed by the industry, which argued that a windfall tax would add uncertainty to the UK tax regime and hit new investments in the UK North Sea at a time when the UK grapples with reducing reliance on foreign imports of oil and gas.
The UK’s new Prime Minister Liz Truss also said on Wednesday that her government would bet more on domestic energy resources, including more extraction of oil and gas from the UK North Sea.
“I want to see us use more of our energy supply, including more oil and gas from the North Sea and nuclear power,” Truss said during her first Prime Minister’s Questions session in Parliament a day after Queen Elizabeth II formally appointed her to lead the new UK cabinet.
During her campaign for Conservative leadership for the next British prime minister, Truss was said to be readying plans to issue as many as 130 new licenses for drilling for oil and gas in the North Sea.
Responding to the report in The Times at the end of August, the UK’s leading offshore industry body, OEUK, said that “the UK and Europe must now think carefully about prioritising reliable and responsible energy producers to deliver cleaner, secure energy.”
Truss is also expected to announce this week her program for tackling the energy and cost-of-living crises in the UK. Reports have it that the new PM is considering plans to spend $150 billion (£130 billion) over the next year and a half to freeze household energy bills at their current levels.
As the energy and cost-of-living crisis in the UK deepens, the incoming Truss government is looking to avoid an 80% planned surge in the so-called price cap on household energy bills set to kick in in October.
Source: Oilprice.com
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Tuesday it has denied a request from leading liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter Cheniere Energy Inc. to exempt turbines at its two U.S. Gulf Coast terminals from a hazardous pollution rule.
The rejection raises questions about whether the Texas-based company will have to reduce exports of the supercooled fuel to install new pollution control equipment at its facilities at a time that Europe is depending on increased shipments of LNG from the United States to offset cuts from Russia.
Europe is facing its worst-ever gas supply crisis, with energy prices soaring and German importers discussing possible rationing in the European Union’s biggest economy after Russia reduced gas flows westward. Moscow has cited a pipeline fault for the halt, but Europe sees it as apparent retribution for Western sanctions imposed on Russia for its invasion of Ukraine.
“Though EPA is denying Cheniere’s request for a special subcategory to comply with the turbines rule, the Agency will continue to work with them and with other companies as needed to assure they meet Clean Air Act obligations,” EPA spokesperson Tim Carroll said in an email.
Owners and operators of gas turbines had a Sept. 5 deadline to comply with the National Emission Standards for Hazardous Air Pollutants (NESHAP), which the administration of President Joe Biden put into effect after an 18-year stay.
The rule imposes curbs on emissions of known carcinogens like formaldehyde and benzene from stationary combustion turbines, like those used by LNG facilities.
Cheniere had asked the Biden administration to exempt a specific kind of turbine that it installed at its LNG terminals from the NESHAP limits, arguing they would reduce shipments from the top U.S. exporter for an extended period and endanger the country’s efforts to ramp up supplies to Europe.
Cheniere was the only company to request such an exemption, according to the EPA. The company claimed the model of turbine it uses at its Texas and Louisiana facilities is the best technology for withstanding the types of storms that often strike the Gulf Coast, but that the equipment is also exceptionally hard to retrofit, and that engineering and installation of pollution controls could take years.
Cheniere spokesperson Eben Burnham-Snyder said that while the company “strongly disagrees” with the EPA’s decision, “we will work with our state and federal regulators to develop solutions that ensure compliance.”
He said the decision may result in “unwarranted expenditures” but added that coming into full compliance will not result in a material financial or operational impact and will not affect its ability to supply LNG to customers and countries around the world.
Gas-powered turbines emit formaldehyde and other dangerous pollutants through a chemical transformation that occurs when methane, the main ingredient in natural gas, is superheated.
Around 250 U.S. gas turbines are subject to the new rule, according to an EPA list, nearly a quarter of them Cheniere’s.
The Houston-based company accounts for around 50% of U.S. shipments of LNG abroad.
Ilan Levin, associate director of the Environmental Integrity Project, said the decision by EPA to deny Cheniere’s request was not a surprise because it had warned the company that it needed to meet the standard for years.
Reuters reported last month that the EPA had questioned Cheniere’s selection of gas turbines without adding pollution controls in 2011 and again in 2013.
“We applaud the EPA for enforcing the law and making sure the people living near these plants in the coastal bend and southeast Texas/southwest Louisiana get the same clean air protections as everybody else,” he said.
The United Nations Secretary-General, António Guterres, has called for a demilitarised zone around the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant, involving the withdrawal of Russian occupying troops and the agreement of Ukrainian forces not to move in.
Guterres was addressing a UN Security Council session on Tuesday, at which he supported the recommendations put forward by Rafael Mariano Grossi, the director general of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) who led an inspection visit to the occupied Zaporizhzhia plant last week, and presented a report to the Security Council.
The report confirmed the presence of Russian soldiers and military equipment at the plant, including army vehicles.
“We are playing with fire and something very, very catastrophic could take place. This is why in our report, we are proposing the establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone limited to the perimeter and the plant itself,” Grossi said.
Guterres said that, as a first step, Russian and Ukrainian forces should cease all military operations around the plant.
“As a second step, an agreement on a demilitarised perimeter should be secured,” he added. “Specifically, that will include the commitment by Russian forces to withdraw military personnel and equipment from that perimeter and the commitment by Ukrainian forces not to move in.”
The Russian ambassador to the UN, Vasily Nebenzya, blamed recent shelling of the plant on Ukraine and portrayed Russian forces as protecting the plant.
He did not respond to the call for a security zone, a proposal Moscow has so far rejected.
Nebenzya said he had not had time to read the IAEA report.
Sergiy Kyslytsya, Ukraine’s ambassador said that Kyiv would have to look at the details of the IAEA’s recommendations, but offered qualified support for the proposal of a demilitarised zone if it involved full Russian withdrawal.
The IAEA report presented on Tuesday said the agency was “gravely concerned” about the “unprecedented” situation at the plant, which is controlled by Russian forces but operated by Ukrainian technicians, and urged interim measures to prevent a nuclear disaster.
The report came as a Russian colonel who served as the military commandant of the occupied Ukrainian city of Berdiansk was reported to have been killed in a car bombing, according to Russian state media reports.
The car bomb reportedly exploded near the city administrative headquarters, which is being used as a Russian base. Photographs showed that the car used by the Russian military official, who has been identified as Col Artyom Bardin, was severely damaged in the attack, which took place close to midday.
Initial reports indicated that Bardin died from his wounds. But Vladimir Rogov, the Russian-appointed administrative head of the Zaporizhzhia region, said in a Telegram post written just after 8.30pm on Tuesday that the colonel continued to “fight for his life”.
“Thank God, information about the death of the commandant of Berdyansk Artyom Bardin is not confirmed. Despite severe injuries, explosive leg amputation and massive blood loss, he is alive. Doctors continue to fight for his life,” he said.
Russian officials have alleged that Ukraine was behind the attack. If true, it would be the most significant assassination yet of an official working for the occupational government of Russia in Ukraine.
At least two Ukrainians collaborating with the Russian government were killed in suspected partisan attacks in August. In one case, the deputy head of the Russian-installed military administration was shot to death in his home in the city of Nova Kakhovka. In late August, a Ukrainian politician from Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s party who had gone over to work with the Russians was killed in the Kherson region.
Ukrainian staff were operating under constant high stress and pressure, especially with the limited staff available, the report said. “This is not sustainable and could lead to increased human error with implications for nuclear safety,” it added.
Britain’s ambassador to the UN, Dame Barbara Woodward, told the Security Council the Zaporizhzhia staff were “no longer workers, but hostages being held at gunpoint.”
Russian troops seized control of the site in early March and there have been repeated attacks in the vicinity, prompting fears of a nuclear disaster. Moscow and Kyiv have denied responsibility and the report did not ascribe blame for the damage its inspectors had discovered.
The UN agency sent a 14-person team to the site last week, including its director general, Rafael Grossi, to assess the situation at the plant. At least two members of the team are to remain there on a permanent basis to ensure the facility’s safety.
“There is an urgent need for interim measures to prevent a nuclear accident arising from physical damage caused by military means,” the IAEA said. “This can be achieved by the immediate establishment of a nuclear safety and security protection zone.
“The IAEA recommends that shelling on site and in its vicinity should be stopped immediately to avoid any further damages to the plant and associated facilities.”
Source: The Vanguard
Russia’s Foreign Ministry has blamed United States of America of being the cause of Europe’s gas supply crisis by pushing European leaders towards the “suicidal” step of cutting economic and energy cooperation with Moscow.
Europe is facing its worst gas supply crisis ever, with energy prices soaring and German importers even discussing possible rationing in the European Union’s biggest economy after Russia reduced gas flows westwards.
Spokesperson for Russia’s Foreign Ministry Maria Zakharova on Tuesday said the United States had long sought to break the energy ties between Russia and major European powers such as Germany, even though Moscow had been a reliable energy supplier since Soviet times.
Responding to a question by Reuters on what needed to happen for Nord Stream 1 to begin pumping again Maria Zakharova, told the news agency: “Listen, you are asking me questions that even children know the answer to: those who started this need to finish this.”
“The dominance of Washington prevailed,” Zakharova said told Reuters on the sidelines of Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok.
“Political forces were brought to power in the European Union who are playing the role of ‘sheep-provocateurs’.”
“It is absolute suicide, but it seems they will have to go through this,” she said.
The United States and European Union have accused Russia of energy blackmail after Moscow reduced gas supplies to European customers.
Russia said there were technical problems with a compressor station that sanctions have prevented being fixed.
The Kremlin says that the West triggered the energy crisis by imposing the most severe sanctions in modern history, a step President Vladimir Putin says is akin to a declaration of economic war.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Consumers of electricity have been encouraged to practice electricity conservation in order to reduce the impact of the recent hikes in electricity tariff.
Managing Director of Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG), Mr Samuel Dubik Masubir Mahama Esq. gave the advice when he engaged a section of Ghanaian journalists in Somanya in the Eastern Region.
He advised consumers to use electricity wisely by turning off some electrical appliances and gadgets if they are not using them in order to reduce electricity consumption.
“I have to let every Ghanaian on the network of ECG know that you are the controller of your faith concerning the amount you pay. Energy conservation should be number one on your heart. If you conserve energy, you pay less, but if you are reckless, you will pay more.
“In as much as there has been an increment your usage of electricity might not make you feel the increment, so the onus is on all of us to do the right thing as to conserve energy at all material times,” he advised.
The Public Utilities Regulatory Commission PURC recently announced 27.15 % hike in electricity tariff effective 1st September 2022.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s electricity and water utilities regulator, Public Utilities Regulatory Commission ((PURC) has launched a software similar to a calculator to help consumers track the exact amount of utility units bought and expended.
The software named ‘tariff reckoner’ is to help promote trust and confidence in the industry.
It is to assist consumers have “control of how much water and electricity they consume” so they can make informed protestation during any eventuality.”
Speaking at the launch of the software during the Commission’s Consumer Service Clinic in Kumasi in the Ashanti Region, Executive Secretary of PURC, Dr. Ismael Ackah said the move was to give consumers the opportunity to present their complaints to both the PURC and the utilities, with the expected assurance of their complaints being resolved.
The consumer service clinic programme was on the theme: “Protecting the interest of consumer and utility service providers.”
The consumer service clinic was instituted to provide the platform for consumers to air their grievances.
“The overall strategy of the commission is to improve transparency of its processes and improve information access. And it is our desire to work with all stakeholders to make PURC a centre for regulatory excellence that protects the interest of both the consumer and utility,” Dr. Ackah said.
Beyond that, Dr. Ackah said the device will create a solid relationship between consumers and service providers and prevent doubts.
The software has an inbuilt facility that allows consumers to make their complaints directly and a possible solution found by identifying the districts and business centres where the transaction took place.
The Ashanti Regional Head of PURC, Francis Baidoo, said the clinic would form the basis for regular engagements with consumers to help address future challenges.
He said the engagements with consumers will help deliver bills at the right time to ensure smooth payment without consumers complaining of over running meters.
Click on the link below to access the tariff reckoner https://purcgh-001-site1.atempurl.com/?fbclid=IwAR074OykIomJn6usEnjOiErW_ILHy_NtToBOInDBZEKxdFJVnQJuuGOTxc4Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
It is no more news that Nigeria is in dire straits when it comes to power supplies, with poor regulatory environment, a fairly better Generation Companies, a Transmission that it is in strait jackets, and a Distribution subsector that has consumed all excuses available in the trick books to keep up with their overall poor service delivery.
This year alone, there has been x National Grid Collapses, with poor gas supply to Generators and inability of Power Distribution Companies to evacuate power from the grid, resulting in unstably high and/or low frequencies.
There is also no shortage of commentaries, from all every quarter in Nigeria. In fact, every Nigerian is now an advocate of sort when the discussions get to the power sector.
One of the recent of such wave making narrative is a comment attributed to the Chairman of the Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, NERC, where he was wrongly quoted to have said Nigerians should expect round the clock power supplies from July 1st, 2022.
What the Chairman, in fact, said was that contracts/arrangements were being put in place to a phased generation, evacuation and Distribution of 5, 000MW. Contract Based.
If you don’t meet up, you get sanctioned. Where this gets interesting, however, is that from all vesting interests in this value chain, the only established weak point remains the Power Distribution Companies. Ask me how?
The entry point in this chain, the Gas Producers, with their capacity, does not have any issue with supplying Gas for Nigeria to generate power.
Generators, with continued ramped up capacity, are presently at an installed Capacity of close to 20, 000MW. With different hydropower plants and thermal plants at different stages of onboarding to the National Grid, there has been visible investment in Power Generation.
In a presentation made on behalf of the General Manager, Transmission Company of Nigeria, at the First Abuja Power Sector Conference and Exhibition, last year, it was stated that so many projects under the Transmission subsector are different stages of completion and commissioning as well. (State/Quote a few).
However, the same cannot be said of the Electricity Distribution Subsector.
Keen observers and followers of the power sector are likely to be wondering if lack of capacity is our problem. This is far from the truth.
Many engineering organizations in Nigeria has exhibited their readiness, and introduced cutting edge technologies, to help in our search for Eldorado.
One of such organizations, Momas Electric Meter Manufacturing Company, MEMMCOL, sometimes in 2019, debuted and piloted what is known as Substation Power Enhancement Panel (SPEP).
SPEP, ass it is called in short, is “designed to meet the standardization, miniaturization, and outdoor requirements of small capacity low voltage distribution equipment.”
According to the Company, the SPEP integrates distribution, metering, protection, GPRS- remote controlled switching on/off, and capacitor reactive compensation, complete and full functions(sort circuit, overload, phase loss, over-voltage, under-voltage, residual current, overcurrent, neutral line disconnection of power supply, lightning protection, etc).
Other features of this SPEP includes Wireless Dual Tariff Metering, ability to take power feed from both Grid and Offgrid Power supplies. The organization, has gone ahead to pilot Substation Power Enhancement Panel, SPEP, in 4 of the electricity distribution companies for FREE. The four Distribution Companies are Kaduna Electric, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, Eko Electricity Distribution PLC, and Abuja Electricity Distribution Company.
Out of these four, only Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has gone ahead to do some level of acceptance and awarded substation enhancement within the Ibadan Metropolis.
This brings us to the main question. Is our continued inability in Nigeria to solve the power sector challenges a capacity challenge, or just our sheer wickedness to ourselves?
How many more of these innovative local solutions have we discountenanced for imported technologies?
This also brings me to a presentation I made to the Ogun State chapter of the Nigerian Society of Engineers on the Entrepreneurship opportunities that our present predicament in the power sector offers, using the Metering of Consumers as example.
The Government was advised by the National Mass Metering Program to try encouraging local manufacturing capacity, by patronizing ecosystems that are willing to innovate based on local engineering capacity.
Industrialized nations have been observed to encourage local manufacturing capacities to their advantage. German Industries are kept alive with their governments actively patronizing their local companies and promoting them internationally.
The ongoing case of the Siemens deal is an example. The German Government offered to loan Nigeria money for the power sector, if we are willing to patronize German company, Siemens.
Nothing is wrong if the Nigerian Government can encourage Nigerian Companies like Momas, especially with their displayed capacity in Engineering. This will also encourage similar companies to be able to innovate to solve the myriads of problems that face us in Nigeria.
This is also an appeal to the Chairman of Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, Engr. Sanusi Garba, to include local Engineering Companies like Momas in the Distribution Network Enhancement. The innovative Substation Power Enhancement Panel can only get better from here.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, with its many interventions in the power sector, is also called to give organizations like Momas opportunity to grow. It will only further help our Nation’s Economy, lessening the demands for Foreign Exchange. We can even export to other African countries and the world indeed.
I only imagine the kind of growth our engineering subsector if the funds given to Siemens is channeled into our local Manufacturing Capacity.
Adetayo Adegbemle is a public opinion commentator/analyst, researcher, and the convener of PowerUpNigeria, an Electric Power Consumer Right Advocacy Group, based in Lagos. (Twitter: @gbemle, @PowerUpNg)
The EU’s energy taxonomy, set to come into force in January 2023, is a voluntary tool and a signpost for private investors towards climate neutrality. But investment from large European banks in oil and gas fell in 2021, unlike their north American counterparts.
Speaking from a similar position Ghana’s Energy Minister, Dr. Matthew Opoku Prempeh also called for more investment.
“Africa has been chronically under-invested,” he said.
“No country should be told to stay where it is,” he added.
The issue of European investment in African hydrocarbons had previously risen to the fore during European Commission president Ursula von Der Leyen’s visit to Senegal in February. Senegalese President Macky Sall said that cutting off funding for new gas exploration would be a “fatal blow” for emerging African countries.
Also, Indian oil and gas Minister, Hardeep Singh Puri welcomed the shift in the popular narrative away from the “ideological hang-up about not using or not extracting the gas reserves you have”.
“Gas is a clean fuel, if you have it why don’t you use it,” he said. He added that it is time to “step on the gas on all the plants, whether it is wind, solar, innovations, compressed biogas”.
The NPA team also visited its counterpart in Togo, the Comité de Suivi des Fluctuations des Prix des Produits Pétroliers (CSFPPP) and the Togolese Port Authority, which is responsible for the management and oversight of all port infrastructure including the Oil Jetty.
Mrs. Asante expressed the NPA’s interest in discussing more business opportunities which can be exploited by players in both countries.
The discussion also centred on how to map out strategies to enhance efficiency in export trade while instituting measures to combat illegal practices in the trade.
In a related development, the NPA team also paid a visit to the project site of Sanol Gas (an LPG marketing company in Togo) where there is currently the construction of a 3000MT capacity LPG Tank Farm.
The visit was to explore business opportunities between the two countries in the LPG sub-sector.
Mrs. Asante informed Sanol Gas of the review of the existing guidelines which seeks to make the export process more business-friendly and facilitate trade.
She further appealed to Sanol Gas to reconsider Ghana as a country of choice for its LPG supply.
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The Liberia Electricity Regulatory Commission (LERC) is a statutory body created by the 2015 Electricity Law of Liberia to oversee and regulate the sector.
GRIDCo is Ghana’s power transmission company and currently manages 6472.23 kilometres of transmission lines.
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In these perilous times, a truth-seeking portal like the Energy News Africa is essential. We have no shareholders or billionaire owner, meaning our journalism is free from commercial and political influence – this makes us different. Support energynewsafrica.com with any amount by donating to the account below in Cedis, Euros or Dollars. Thank you
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Mr. Owuraku-Aidoo further encouraged beneficiaries of the government’s intervention to sustain the use of LPG and not revert to firewood and charcoal, saying: “LPG is the safest, cleanest and healthiest form of cooking fuel available today and we urge all Ghanaians to switch to LPG now.”
On her part, the Queen-mother for Akrokeri and Chairperson for the event, Nana Serwaa Bruwaa II, called for massive support for the programme as they work towards decarbonising the country.
The government envisages that the rollout of the National LPG Promotion Programme using the Cylinder Recirculation Module as a vehicle for distribution will help Ghana achieve its goal in the use of LPG as a clean, safe and healthy cooking fuel and to satisfy Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 7; which is affordable and clean energy and SDG 13; which is climate action.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com 
Other features of this SPEP includes Wireless Dual Tariff Metering, ability to take power feed from both Grid and Offgrid Power supplies. The organization, has gone ahead to pilot Substation Power Enhancement Panel, SPEP, in 4 of the electricity distribution companies for FREE. The four Distribution Companies are Kaduna Electric, Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company, Eko Electricity Distribution PLC, and Abuja Electricity Distribution Company.
Out of these four, only Ibadan Electricity Distribution Company has gone ahead to do some level of acceptance and awarded substation enhancement within the Ibadan Metropolis.
This brings us to the main question. Is our continued inability in Nigeria to solve the power sector challenges a capacity challenge, or just our sheer wickedness to ourselves?
How many more of these innovative local solutions have we discountenanced for imported technologies?
This also brings me to a presentation I made to the Ogun State chapter of the Nigerian Society of Engineers on the Entrepreneurship opportunities that our present predicament in the power sector offers, using the Metering of Consumers as example.
The Government was advised by the National Mass Metering Program to try encouraging local manufacturing capacity, by patronizing ecosystems that are willing to innovate based on local engineering capacity.
Industrialized nations have been observed to encourage local manufacturing capacities to their advantage. German Industries are kept alive with their governments actively patronizing their local companies and promoting them internationally.
The ongoing case of the Siemens deal is an example. The German Government offered to loan Nigeria money for the power sector, if we are willing to patronize German company, Siemens.
Nothing is wrong if the Nigerian Government can encourage Nigerian Companies like Momas, especially with their displayed capacity in Engineering. This will also encourage similar companies to be able to innovate to solve the myriads of problems that face us in Nigeria.
This is also an appeal to the Chairman of Nigeria Electricity Regulatory Commission, Engr. Sanusi Garba, to include local Engineering Companies like Momas in the Distribution Network Enhancement. The innovative Substation Power Enhancement Panel can only get better from here.
The Central Bank of Nigeria, with its many interventions in the power sector, is also called to give organizations like Momas opportunity to grow. It will only further help our Nation’s Economy, lessening the demands for Foreign Exchange. We can even export to other African countries and the world indeed.
I only imagine the kind of growth our engineering subsector if the funds given to Siemens is channeled into our local Manufacturing Capacity.
Adetayo Adegbemle is a public opinion commentator/analyst, researcher, and the convener of PowerUpNigeria, an Electric Power Consumer Right Advocacy Group, based in Lagos. (Twitter: @gbemle, @PowerUpNg)