Ford Foundation, an independent, nonprofit grant-making organization, has supported the Ghana-based African Centre for Energy Policy (ACEP) with US$3 million to set up an Extractive Industry and Climate Change Governance Fund (EICGF).
The Fund is a five-year initiative aimed at promoting and supporting more equitable governance of natural resources that lead to sustainable and inclusive development in West Africa.
Focusing primarily on Nigeria and Ghana, the Fund, which will be managed by ACEP, an energy policy think-tank, will support a network of resource governance organizations and civic actors, anti-corruption organizations, budget advocates, and grassroots and community organizations addressing inequality as it relates to the natural resources sector in the region.
Climate change reflects a fundamental failure of global development that is rooted in the extraction of natural resources.
In West Africa, the extraction of metals, minerals and fossil fuels has exacerbated inequalities and caused severe environmental damage that drives climate change.
Whether natural resources aggravate or reduce inequality depends on who controls those resources, how the benefits that derive from them are distributed across different communities, and whether those resources are used in ways that foster ecosystem restoration or degradation.
“With renewed efforts toward energy transition, there is an opportunity to transform the natural resources sector toward embracing equitable governance and sustainable practices,” Anthony Bebbington, Director of Ford’s Natural Resources and Climate Change Programme, commented during the launch of the Fund last Friday.
“An energy transition that is both low carbon and socially just will be an asset that helps economies to thrive in West Africa at the same time as it mitigates the impacts of climate change. Key to this is centring the needs of local communities affected by resource extraction and a re-envisioning of development models and energy systems that benefits communities and sustains the planet,” he stated.
Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of African Centre for Energy Policy
With dwindling funding support and in the face of the pandemic, civil society organizations in West Africa are facing significant challenges that impact their sustainability and capacity to effectively promote policy actions that target inequality and injustice.
“To thrive, we need a strong civil society that can help shape a more sustainable future for West Africa,” said Emmanuel Kuyole, Programme Officer for Ford’s Natural Resource and Climate Change Programme.
“As COVID-19 exacerbates deep-seated inequalities, funders must double down their support for civil society organizations to influence decisions that affect the communities they represent.”
The Ford Foundation’s $3 million investment comes from the foundation’s unprecedented $1 billion social bonds launched in 2020 to help strengthen and stabilize civil society organizations globally during the pandemic.
The Extractive Industry and Climate Change Governance Fund are in addition to Ford’s ongoing support for organizations working to advance equitable governance of natural resources in the region.
“As we viscerally face the impacts of multiple crises—climate change, deep economic inequality, and the pandemic—now is the time to invest in a recovery that puts people at the centre of solutions,” said Benjamin Boakye, Executive Director of Africa Centre for Energy Policy during the virtual launch of the Fund via zoom.
“To do this, we need a thriving civil society with capacity, credibility and courage to steer West Africa toward a sustainable and equitable future. We call on more funders to join us in this effort.”
The Extractive Industry and Climate Change Governance Fund will focus on funding civil society organizations that work to address significant policy implementation gaps and advocate for reforms in the following critical resource governance areas:
Revenue and benefit-sharing policies – Revenues from resource extraction must be equitably distributed to meet the development priorities of citizens, particularly of impoverished communities, persons with disabilities, and communities affected by resource extraction.
Prevalence of resource-backed debts – Governments, civil society, and the natural resources sector must advance an African solution to development finance that moves away from a model that keeps countries in debt and stunts socioeconomic progress.
Active citizenship in resource governance–Citizens must be able to demand transparent, efficient, and effective revenue allocation, expenditure, and accounting of revenues from natural resources extraction to help promote equitable socioeconomic development.
Resource extraction with high social and environmental standards–The extraction of natural resources must account for and mitigate the environmental and social impacts on the host communities and their inhabitants. Resource extraction should not leave these communities worse off than they were before the extractive activities.
Strengthening civic spaces–Civic actors and advocates should be able to meaningfully engage governments in the demand for transparency and accountability in the natural resources sector.
Nuclear Power Ghana (NPG), the agency responsible for spearheading the construction of Ghana’s first nuclear power plant has begun reviewing RFI responses received from six vendor countries.
According to the executive director of NPG Dr Stephen Yamoah, his outfit through the Ministry of Energy issued Request for Information (RFI) to six vendor countries namely; China, India, Russia, USA, South Korea and France.
He said the RFI sought for both technical, financial and contractual information from the vendor countries regarding thetechnology they intend to deploy to Ghana.
He said out of the sixcountries, they received proposals from five countries with the exception of India which did not respond to their RFI because of some local project commitments which would be challenging to commit to Ghana.
Dr Yamoah said initially Canada was not among the vendor countries they issued the RFI to but said Canadian vendors got the hint of the RFI they issued to USA and some responded to be considered for the selection process thereby bringing the total number of countries to seven.
Dr Yamoah said there are fifteen different technologies that his outfit is currently reviewing from the six vendor countries.
The size of the reactors being proposed by the vendor countries ranges from 700MWe to 1400MWe for large reactors and 50MWe to 300MWe for small modular reactors.
Speaking in an interview with energynewsafrica.com, Dr. Yamoah said his outfit is critically reviewing all the responses and hopes to complete the process by the end of December.
He said after the review process, a report shall be submitted to the Minister for Energy for onward submission to Cabinet for consideration and decision on which strategic partner Ghana want to move along with.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Power supply has been restored to several parts of Yilo and Manya Krobo Municipalities in the Eastern Region of Ghana after one week of staying in darkness.
The power distribution company, Electricity Company of Ghana (ECG) cut power supply to the two municipalities last week after some unscrupulous persons transferred customers from one phase off transformers to another, leading to overloading of some transformers and eventually destroying several others within the communities.
To save its network, ECG shut down its feeders to the Bulk Supply Point supplying power to the areas.
A local journalist, Michael, who has been monitoring the power situation in the area told energynewsafrica.com that the power supply was restored a few minutes ago, Sunday.
The absence of power in the area over the last one week brought discomfort to the residents, with businesses turning to the use of gen-sets as alternative means of providing electricity.
According to the business owners, the total shutdown of power affected them adversely.
A Medical Director at the St. Martin’s De Porres Hospital, Dr Stephen Kusi said the facility was spending tens of thousands of Cedis on fuel to power its power plant to run the facility.
Most of the business owners said they spent about GHC100 daily to buy fuel to run either privately owned or hired generators.
An iced-cream depot operator, Enoch Teye reiterated the importance of electricity to the business and said they were losing their customers as sales had gone down.
“Currently, we’ve been having the problem of light off; power comes on and it goes off. Even as I speak to you, I’ve hired a generator and spent about GHc120 to buy petrol to run it. So, we have been affected,” another resident lamented.
A printing press operator, Moses Karlie, also said, “We’re not finding it easy at all…this is a printing press and everything about printing is electricity but since we have not had power for about four days now, work has not been easy at all.”
To save fuel, Mr. Moses said he uses his generator when customers walked in for their services.
According to him, “What we do is when a customer walks in, you put the generator on to work. After that, you turn it off to save the cost of fueling.”
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
The Government of Sierra Leone is working very hard to transform the country’s energy sector, Vice President of the West African nation, H.E Dr Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh has said.
According to him, the government views the energy sector as critical to the transformation of the country’s economy and is, therefore, trying its best to transform the energy sector.
He said since President Dr Julius Maada Wonie Bio’s administration assumed office in 2018, it has done a lot, acknowledging, however, that more work needs to be done.
“A couple of years ago, when we assumed power in 2018, one of the key sectors that the Sierra Leone government wanted to transform was the energy sector…As a government that wants to open up its sectors, country, attract Foreign Direct Investment, boost the productive sector, it is but very important that we focus and invest enormously in the energy sector. We have been doing that progressively under the leadership of the energy minister.”
Dr Juldeh Jalloh said these when he led a delegation comprising Minister for Energy, Alhaji Kanja, to visit Ghana Grid Company, the power transmission company in the Republic of Ghana.
“When we came in, the energy level in Sierra Leone was 16 per cent, today, three years down the line, we are 31 per cent down the line and we know that we still need to do more…we are eligible for a compact in 2020 and we realised that Ghana is in the second compact so we are in Ghana to share experiences with our Ghanaian colleagues particularly in the energy sector. We are here to learn from some of the excellent work you have been doing and also to take cognisance of the challenges and how you managed to some of those challenges,” he explained.
Chief Executive Officer of Ghana Grid Company, Ebenezer Essienyi, on his part, said his outfit is ready to assist and guide the Sierra Leonean delegations to learn in the energy sector.
Ing. Ebenezer Kofi Essienyi, CEO of GRIDCo
He assured his guests of bringing to bear the challenges Ghana faced, how it resolved the situation and how to maintain their grids for a stabilized energy sector.
“It’s much pleasure to welcome you for us to engage on ways and means for Sierra Leone to learn the lessons that we have gone through in our power sector so that you don’t make the mistakes we did. We are ready to guide you in any aspect of our works. The traps that we fell in, what we learnt and what we must do going forward. Then also, based on our knowledge of the industry for you, based on the Transco CLG project and the need for you to acquire the knowledge in terms of planning, maintenance, we are ready. You just need to call upon us and we will gladly come and assist your team in setting things up,” he stated.
The Sierra Leone Vice President, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, and his delegations took a tour to GRIDCo smaller II and SCC to familiarize themselves with how GRIDCo operates.
Ghana’s power transmission company, GRIDCo, has completed repair and restoration works on the two collapsed towers of 330kV Aboadze-Anwomaso Transmission Line ahead of schedule.
This is expected to improve the power supply in the Ashanti and Northern Regions in the coming days.
Residents of the Ashanti Region and some parts of the Northern Region have been sleeping in darkness following the collapse of the telecommunication mast on GRIDCo’s transmission line in the western part of Ghana about a month ago.
Briefing journalists at GRIDCo’s Anwomaso Substation near Kumasi on Friday, Mr Boakye gave an assurance that there was a complete restoration of power supply.
“Kumasi now will not need to take off any load, barring any unforeseen circumstances,” he said.
Mr Boachie reiterated that GRIDCo was collaborating with other power supply agencies to establish another power generation enclave in Kumasi to improve power supply to the middle and northern parts of Ghana.
This would encompass the relocation of the Ameri Power Plant from Aboadze to Kumasi, expected to be completed by the end of 2022.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
The President of the Republic of Cote d’Ivoire, Alassane Ouattara, has met with Eni CEO Claudio Descalzi to discuss the status of the fast-tracked development of the Baleine discovery, which will be the first net-zero development in Africa for scope 1 and scope 2 emissions.
In attendance at the meeting were Prime Minister Patrick Achi, the Secretary General of the Presidency, Abdourahmane Cissé, the Minister of Water and Forests Alain Donwahi, the Minister of Finance Adama Coulibaly, the Minister of Education Superior and Scientific Research Mr. Adama Diawara and the Minister of Mines, Oil Resources and Energy Thomas Camara.
Eni has committed to a phased development strategy for the Baleine field, through an accelerated development (Phase 1) with start-up by 2023 that will allow an optimized time-to-market.
In parallel with the first phase, the full-field studies will advance.
“The project will leverage the best available technologies to minimize GHG emissions, implementing high efficiency plant solutions, process energy recovery and the reduction and control of fugitive emissions,” the company said in a statement.
As part of the meeting, and in order to promote decarbonisation in the country, Eni and the Ivorian Ministry of Mines, Petroleum and Energy signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) which provides for initiatives in the field of Natural Climate Solution aimed at offsetting greenhouse gas emissions through the protection, sustainable management and restoration of degraded natural ecosystems; agricultural development initiatives focused on the cultivation of oil crops and the collection of natural waste and Used Cooking Oil (UCO), to be used as bio-feedstock for biorefineries (biogas, biomethane); the identification and possible development of power production projects from renewable or low carbon sources, with a focus on solar power; the implementation of local development projects in line with the National Development Plans of the Government of Cote d’Ivoire and with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) of the United Nations, including clean cooking initiatives focused on the construction and distribution of improved cookstoves which contribute to access to energy and emission offset, while at the same time creating development opportunities for local SMEs.
In addition, Eni and the Ministry of Higher Education and Scientific Research have signed a MoU between Eni Corporate University and the Institut National Polytechnique Houphouët-Boigny to cooperate on capacity building initiatives to contribute to the training of local human resources.
The potential of Baleine, in Block CI-101, is estimated at over 2 billion barrels of oil in place and about 2.4 trillion cubic feet (TCF) of associated gas, which will contribute to increase energy production in Côte d’Ivoire, strengthening the country’s role as a regional energy hub.
The CI-101 block is operated by a consortium made up of Eni, the operator, and Petroci Holding. In the country, Eni owns stakes in blocks CI-205, CI-501, CI-504 and CI-802, all with the same partner Petroci Holding.
Executive Secretary of the Chamber of Petroleum Consumers Ghana, a petroleum advocacy group in the Republic of Ghana, Duncan Amoah, has observed that the deregulation of petroleum has rather increased the prices of fuel at the pump.
The Government of Ghana, in June 2015, introduced deregulation of the petroleum downstream sector as part of efforts to reduce the huge debts that deprived the Oil Marketing Companies (OMCs) of the needed capital for effective and sustainable business operations.
Deregulation is the method of changing an economic system or industry from intensive government regulation to a system that is accessible to all interested oil investors, which is controlled by forces of demand and supply.
Contributing to a discussion on the downstream petroleum sector on an Accra–based Joy News channel, Mr Duncan Amoah said the deregulation has resulted in a high cost of fuel, thereby, bringing hardships on Ghanaians particularly fuel consumers.
“You see, there is something that I am still contemplating whether this whole deregulation exercise is even benefitting the ordinary Ghanaian. So you have two stations, let’s say Duncan and Kudus; Duncan station sells at 5.0, Kudus sells at 6.0, a driver walks to my station and pays 5.0 for fuel; another pays 6.0 for fuel yet they are charging the same fare so where is the benefit?” he quizzed on Thursday.
He recalled that during the era of former President John Agyekum Kufuor, “crude prices sometime in 2007 did hit the roof of 120, 140” but consumers were not asked to pay GHc6 plus for petrol.
He added that the taxes during the former President’s era were reasonable too.
According to Mr Amoah, a lot of considerations did not go into the deregulation exercise, adding that the government just took its hands off the final pricing at the pumps.
“It was just rolled out because the government was tired and was choking on the legacy debt so the most immediate solution was to leave all the marketing companies. You bring your product, you set your prices, if you make losses, I don’t owe you anything,” he stated.
Duncan Amoah said forex would continue to be a problem so far as fuel importation is not managed in the country.
“Those guys would need around 400 million every single month to bring in petroleum products, they would need a dollar, equivalent. So if they are converting all of that to dollars every single month, do you think your cedi will survive? So the cedi will depreciate and when it does, a forex rate has to be done and added to your pump prices,” he explained.
International Oil and Gas Companies are going ahead to make their Final Investment Decision (FID) for the Ugandan oil projects following the passage of the East Africa Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP) (Special Provisions) Bill 2021, Mr Ali Ssekatawa, the Director Legal and Corporate Affairs at the Petroleum Authority of Uganda (PAU), has said.
“The EACOP Bill will also enable UNOC (Uganda National Oil Company) to meet its financial obligation as a Joint Venture Partner (JVP) and create a harmonised law for operationalisation of the EACOP in Uganda and Tanzania,” Mr Ssekatawa said.
Speaking to over 30 editors from both the traditional and new media at a workshop, Mr Ssekatawa said the oil companies are issuing contracts for the Engineering Procurement and Construction (EPC) work packages and the site clearance works for the Tilenga project industrial area that will host the Central Processing Facility (CPF) and base camps.
“What remains to fully spur the development phase into motion is passing of the enabling legislation for the EACOP,” he said.
Explaining why UNOC wanted to spend at the source instead of waiting for Parliament’s budget approval, Mr Ssekatawa said UNOC was a company incorporated under the Company Act in 2013 and, therefore, could not operate like any other government department.
“What the Civil Society is demanding is to have UNOC operate like a Corporation, Agency or Authority of Government. This cannot be the case because UNOC is a company like any other private entity doing business,” Mr Ssekatawa clarified.
Mr Ssekatawa added that “the Bill will also enable UNOC to pay its share of the transportation fees without attracting penalties and all National Oil Companies (NOCs) operate similarly and not as statutory agencies.”
The UNOC was established as a commercial entity to do business on behalf of the Government of Uganda. However, this can only be achieved once the EACOP Bill is passed with the current clauses without amending them.
Ms Gloria Sebikari, the Manager of Corporate Affairs at the PAU, said the editors’ training workshop was necessitated by the need to equip them with the requisite knowledge on the oil and gas sector.
“The oil and gas sector has transitioned to the development and production phase. This, therefore, requires you as gatekeepers to be ahead of the people you supervise and ensure that objective and factual information is shared on your platforms,” Ms Sebikari said.
The editors appreciated the workshop and appealed for more engagements to keep abreast with the activities taking place in the sector.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
A former Chief Executive Officer of Transmission Company of Nigeria (TCN), Eng. S. Akinwumi Bada, has been appointed as the interim Managing Director of Abuja Electricity Distribution Company (AEDC).
His appointment follows the dismissal of the management earlier this week by President Muhammadu Bihari.
The Bureau of Public Enterprises (BPE) announced the appointment in a statement issued by Amina Tukur Othman, Head of Public Communications, BPE, on Thursday, December 9, 2021.
The statement indicated that the Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC), the power sector regulator, has approved the appointment of the interim management team.
Other members of the team are Sani Usman as Interim Chief Business Officer, and Babajide Ibironke as Interim Chief Finance Officer, Donald Etim as Interim Chief Marketing Officer, and Femi Zachaeus as Interim Chief Technical Officer.
NERC and BPE had sacked the former management team of the AEDC and approved the appointment of an interim team to manage the power distribution company on the basis of legal processes arising from the failure of the core investor to meet its obligations to a lender.
Chairman of NERC, Sanusi Garba, in approving the appointments, said the development is in pursuance of the earlier fit and proper review of your (BPE’s) pool of nominees and in the context of business continuity frame work of the Nigerian Electricity Supply Industry (NESI)”.
“NERC and BPE, in a joint statement on Wednesday, signed by Sanusi Garba and Alex Okoh, Director General of BPE, stated that there had been an ongoing dispute amongst competing factions of AEDC’s majority shareholder/core investor KANN Utility Company Limited (KANN).
“The dispute eventually spilled over with the lender that provided the acquisition loan to KANN for the acquisition of majority shares during the privatisation exercise in 2013, over KANN’s inability to service its debt to the bank.
“The United Bank for Africa (UBA) had acted as Mandated Lead Arranger, underwriting the entire facility of US$ 122 million (about N20 billion) for KANN Utilities acquisition of AEDC.”
BPE said that during the course of the intractable crisis, AEDC not only struggled to meet its obligations to the market under the terms and conditions of its licence but was also unable to meet its obligations to key stakeholders in the organisation, including staff.
This, it said, culminated in the industrial action by members of the Nigerian Union of Electricity Employees (NUEE).
“Eventually, this resulted in a total service disruption on Dec. 6, for over 14 hours in AEDC’s network area.
“The provision of electricity supply in AEDC’s network area was only restored after the intervention of the Minister of Power, NERC and BPE following an agreement with the union on the terms for the suspension of the industrial action on Dec. 6.
“The public should note that arising from KANN’s inability to service its loan and the ensuing dispute over the servicing of the loan from UBA PLC, the lender exercised its rights by appointing a Receiver/Manager over KANN.
“Stakeholders, including NERC, Central Bank of Nigeria (CBN), and the BPE had on several times worked to broker an amicable resolution between the contending parties.”
The statement added that the protracted resolution of the dispute exacerbated the state of affairs at AEDC, resulting in an industrial action and a total blackout in the service area for over 14 hours.
It said that it then became apparent that decisive steps were required to address the matter and BPE agreed with the lender’s request to exercise its powers as Receiver/Manager over KANN by exercising its powers over the 60 per cent equity in AEDC as a means to recovering the acquisition loan granted by the bank.
“The action to appoint an interim team to manage AEDC was not done on the basis of a directive from the Federal Government but on the basis of legal processes arising from the failure of the core investor in AEDC to meet its obligations to a lender.
“The receiver/manager has agreed to the appointment of an interim management team in conjunction with BPE as part of measures designed to address business failure events and ensure continuity of service to end-use customers in the service area.”
Profile of Bada Akinwumi
Engr. S. A. Bada is the CEO of Szotyola Energy International Services
He holds M. Sc. Telecommunications Engineering from Technical University of Budapest, Hungary
He joined the services of the National Electric Power Authority (now Power Holding Company of Nigeria) in Kaduna, Nigeria in 1984 as a member of the first group of professional telecommunications engineers recruited into the company.
He rose to the position of Assistant General Manager (Communications) – the first in NEPA – in 1999 and was deployed to the National Control Centre of the power utility. In this capacity, he was head of the telecommunications maintenance group of the utility.
The group consisted of telecommunications and SCADA which is a supervisory, monitoring and controlling tool for grid stability and reliability.
He was later redeployed to the Operations Sector of the utility at Corporate Headquarters.
Upon promotion to General Manager in 2002, he was transferred to the Transmission Sector of the utility.
There he was saddled with the following responsibilities amongst others: Setting off and compliance monitoring of utility-wide grid operational standards; Grid telecommunications, System Control And Data Acquisition/Energy Management System (SCADA/EMS).
He later got promoted to the position of Executive Director (System Operations), in which capacity he functioned as the System Operator of the Nigerian National Electricity Grid. He participated actively in the development of the Grid Code of the Nigerian Electricity Grid.
As Executive Director, he was seconded to the Presidency in 2010 and appointed as Senior Special Assistant to the President on Power Transmission and System Operations. In this capacity, he worked with the Presidential Task Force on Power as Senior Performance Monitor (Transmission and System Operations) till 2011 when he was appointed Chief Executive Officer, Transmission Company of Nigeria
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ghana’s power transmission company, GRIDCo, has expressed readiness to assist Sierra Leone to transform its power sector.
The Chief Executive Officer of GRIDCo, Ing Ebenezer Kofi Essienyi said this when the Vice President of Sierra Leone, Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh, who is on an official visit to Ghana, led a delegation to tour the Ghana Grid Company in Tema on Wednesday, December 8, 2021.
He said Ghana is willing to assist Sierra Leone in its power sector “so that you don’t make the mistakes we have gone through in our power sector.
“We are ready to guide you in any aspect of our work. The traps that we fell in, what we learnt and what is it we must do going forward,” he said.
Ing Kofi Essienyi said Ghana has successfully implemented two Power Compacts and, therefore, has learnt lessons that she is ready to share.
GRIDCo operates two major transmission line systems, ie, 161 kV and 330 kV covering about 6500 kilometres across the West African nation.
Sierra Leone, currently, has 31 per cent electricity access as compared to Ghana’s 86 per cent.
Ing Kofi Essienyi urged Sierra Leone not to hesitate to call on GRIDCo, saying: “We will gladly come and assist your team.”
On his part, the Vice President of Sierra Leone H. E. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh said his visit to Ghana was to learn from the excellent work of Ghana Grid Company and also to share their experiences in their power sector.
He said in 2020, Sierra Leone qualified for power compact from the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) and since Ghana had already implemented two successful power compacts, there was the need to visit Ghana to learn from them.
“We’re here to learn from the good work and also to take cognizance of the challenges and how you overcame them,” he stated.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Engie PowerCorner, a subsidiary of the French group Engie, has obtained a license from the Beninese Agency for Rural Electrification and Energy Management (ABERME) to install a containerized solar mini-grid in Dohouè in southern Benin.
The company plans to deploy 22 solar mini-grids in rural Benin by 2023.
The company will install and operate one of its containerized systems that it builds in rural areas of several African countries.
This modular system consists of solar panels covering a container.
The shipping container is equipped with inverters and batteries to store electricity for on-demand redistribution after sunset or in bad weather.
The containerized mini-grid installed in Dohouè is expected to be powerful enough to provide electricity to 1,500 people.
“This electrification project should give a boost to the economic development of the local community. It also means a much-needed support for women, through the realization of income-generating activities for more empowerment and financial inclusion,” explains Gillian-Alexandre Huart, Managing Director of Engie Energy Access.
This project is the first of a series of stand-alone solar systems that will be installed in Benin in the coming months.
These installations will have a capacity of 2.4 MWp and will provide electricity to 30,000 people in three departments.
The electrification project will be co-financed by Engie PowerCorner with Millennium Challenge Account, through its Millennium Challenge Account Benin II (MCA-Benin II) program. This bilateral development fund will co-finance Engie’s green mini-grids under the Off Grid Clean Energy Facility (OCEF).
This facility set up by MCA-Benin II aims to increase access to electricity for the currently unserved population in rural and peri-urban areas of Benin by reducing barriers to investment in the off-grid energy sector.
Engie PowerCorner’s containerized mini-grids that will be at the centre of this electrification project are already providing electricity to 25,000 households and 150 microenterprises and community infrastructure in 13 African villages.
Due to low hydropower generation, Iceland has seen a shortage of electricity supply in recent days to the point where its biggest utility curtailed power to some industrial activities, data centers, and cryptocurrency mining.
Iceland generates nearly 100 percent of its electricity from renewable energy sources, with hydropower generation accounting for around 73 percent of power supply and geothermal power representing the other 27 percent of electricity generation.
This week, however, low levels of hydro reservoirs, a fault at one power station, and a delay in obtaining electricity from a third-party provider led to the reduction—effective immediately—of electricity to data centers, aluminum smelters, and fish meal factories, the national power company of Iceland, Landsvirkjun, said in a statement on Tuesday.
Landsvirkjun is also rejecting all requests from new customers for cryptocurrency mining, the company added.
Apart from the low hydro levels and issues at a power plant, record electricity demand in recent weeks has also played a part in the decision to reduce supply to industrial customers and data centers, Tinna Traustadottir, executive vice president of sales and customer service at Landsvirkjun, told Bloomberg.
Crypto mining operations are large in Iceland, where 100 percent of the electricity comes from hydro or geothermal power. A total of 8 percent of all Bitcoins have been mined in Iceland, according to the Icelandic Blockchain Foundation cited by DW.
But the large power consumption of cryptocurrency mining—although it could be considered ‘green’ in Iceland because of the 100-percent renewable electricity supply—is further straining the grid when demand is high and hydro resource levels low, as is the case this week.
Iceland is not the only country to reduce power for crypto activities. Kazakhstan, for example, has struggled with an energy crunch and has recently started to ration electricity to the country’s biggest consumers, likely targeting cryptocurrency mining operations.
Source: Oilprice.com
Oil Marketing Companies in the Republic of Ghana are accusing the government of interfering in the petroleum downstream business which is highly deregulated.
According to the OMCs, the government’s interference in the petroleum downstream is dangerous, noting that it threatens the survival of OMCs /LPG Marketing Companies in the industry with the loss of jobs for the teeming masses being employed, accumulation of debts /levies and their eventual demise.
The accusation by the OMCs follows a purported directive issued by President Akufo-Addo to GOIL Company Ltd, an indigenous and leading OMC in the Republic of Ghana, to reduce fuel prices even though the industry is deregulated.
In a letter signed by Kwaku Agyemang-Duah, industry coordinator and Chief Executive Officer of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies to the Minister of Energy, Dr Matthew Opoku Prempeh, the 175 OMCs asked the government to immediately withdraw the directive to GOIL and desist from ever interfering in the market in one way or the other if the current pricing regime and deregulation would succeed.
They said the government cannot be a player and referee in a field that allows industries to operate the business more freely, make decisions efficiently and remove corporate restrictions.
Mr Kwaku Agyemang-Duah, Chief Executive Officer of Association of Oil Marketing Companies, Republic of Ghana
“The State, which is a major shareholder of GOIL, has directed GOIL, a major downstream player, to reduce its ex-pump prices of fuel. If the foregoing is true, it is indeed unfortunate, dangerous as well as stressful especially given the current deregulation regime,” it stated.
It added that ‘compelling’ GOIL to reduce its fuel prices would consequently not make the company efficient and end up as another ‘TOR spectacle’.
“The cumulative effects are threatening the survival of OMCs/LPGMCs in the industry, with loss of jobs for the teeming masses being employed, accumulation of debts/levies and their eventual demise.
“We of the Association of Oil Marketing Companies (AOMC) on behalf of the silent majority of 175 OMCs /LPGMCs hereby request that: Government withdraws the directive to GOIL and desists from ever interfering in the market in one way or the other if the deregulation regime is to succeed. Secondly, if Government thinks that the foregoing (deregulation regime) cannot be adhered to, we must, as a matter of urgency, halt the deregulation process and revert to the regulatory regime,’’ the letter said.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
For the fourth consecutive year, Uganda’s electricity sector is Africa’s best regulated across a number of key metrics, according to the African Development Bank’s 2021 Electricity Regulatory Index.
Other strong performers include East African neighbours, Kenya and Tanzania, as well as Namibia and Egypt.
The 2021 Electricity Regulatory Index, an annual report, covered 43 countries, up from 36 in the previous edition, and assessed their impact on the performance of their electricity sectors.
The index covered 3 countries in the North Africa region; 14 in West Africa; 6 in Central Africa; 7 in East Africa; and 13 in the Southern Africa region.
“The unprecedented participation of so many countries shows the commitment to strengthen the countries’ regulatory environment with a view to improving the performance of the respective electricity sectors,” said Dr. Kevin Kariuki, the African Development Bank’s Vice President for Power, Energy, Climate and Green Growth.
Among the 2021 report’s key highlights are that regulatory independence is one sub-indicator where African countries have room to improve: in 93% of sampled countries, governments, and stakeholders exercise influence over regulatory authorities.
In terms of regulatory substance, participating countries scored lowest on adequacy of their tariff setting and frameworks, as well as licensing frameworks when compared with best practice.
According to the report, the average performance on economic regulation has continued to decline since 2018.
A third of countries surveyed indicated they lack methodologies to determine tariffs; another 40% rely on tariff methodologies that do not include key attributes such as automatic tariff adjustment and tariff indexation mechanisms and schedule for major tariff reviews.
Wale Shonibare, African Development Bank Director for Energy Financial Solutions, Policy and Regulation, commended the top-performing country.
“Uganda topping the rankings consecutively for four years comes as no surprise to many, as the regulator spends significant time on consultation and analysis, including regulatory impact assessments of key interventions and follow-through to ensure full implementation,” he said.
Outside stakeholders also viewed the report’s results positively.
Eng. Abel Didier Tella, Director General of the Association of Power Utilities of Africa, said, “It is interesting that the utilities in most of the top-performing countries in the Electricity Regulatory Index are listed on their national stock exchanges, which requires compliance with transparency in information sharing and good governance practice.”
Since its launch in 2018, the Electricity Regulatory Index has highlighted aspects of electricity regulation that need reform, identified appropriate areas for intervention, and encouraged stakeholders to be proactive in addressing challenges. Since then, the index has been widely adopted by regulators and other stakeholders across the continent as a benchmark for the regulatory environment as well as for ongoing reforms.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com
Ing Kofi Essienyi urged Sierra Leone not to hesitate to call on GRIDCo, saying: “We will gladly come and assist your team.”
On his part, the Vice President of Sierra Leone H. E. Mohamed Juldeh Jalloh said his visit to Ghana was to learn from the excellent work of Ghana Grid Company and also to share their experiences in their power sector.
Source: https://energynewsafrica.com 
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