Source:www.energynewsafrica.com South Africa: Eskom Announces Four Days’ Load Shedding
South Africa’s utility company, Eskom has begun Stage 1 power cuts on Monday, March 9, 2020.
The load shedding exercise is expected to stay until Thursday this week.
“We regret to inform the country that starting from 09:00 tomorrow [9 March], Eskom will implement Stage 1 loadshedding until 23:00. It is envisaged loadshedding may continue to be implemented until Thursday,” Eskom in a statement.
Unplanned breakdowns or outages were at 11,700MW as at 19:20 on Sunday evening and planned maintenance outages are at 4,963MW.
The utility added: “This is due to a number of units still on unplanned breakdowns, which will only return during the course of the week. It will also help Eskom to rebuild the emergency reserves that were depleted as we strove to keep the lights on during the high equipment breakdowns we experienced towards the end of last week.”
Implementing loadshedding will put Eskom in a better position to meet the rising demand during the week. Work is also continuing to return to service some of the unplanned breakdowns we experienced.
The system is currently constrained, unpredictable and vulnerable. Demand has also incrementally risen since January, putting pressure on the aging fleet.
Eskom has therefore urged every South African to co-operate in managing electricity consumption with care to help us minimise loadshedding.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com Nigeria: Folake Soetan Appointed Acting CEO Of Ikeja Electric
Nigeria’s electricity distribution company, Ikeja Electric has appointed Folake Soetan as its acting chief executive officer, effective 2 March 2020.
She takes over from Dr Anthony Youdeowei who has been the CEO for the last four years.
A company statement noted that Youdeowei presided over Ikeja Electric transformation initiatives resulting in one of the most aggressive loss reduction recorded in the sector.
In her previous role as chief operating officer of Ikeja Electric, she and her team introduced several initiatives that brought about the improvement of the quality of power supply in the Ikeja franchise areas, the company stated.
Soetan was also in charge of the team that delivered the Bilateral Power initiative, which for the first time in Nigeria, witnessed the provision of a minimum of 20 hours of power supplied through the national grid to customers.
“Soetan has a track record of operational leadership and brings extensive experience to the role, having held senior leadership positions in the Aviation, Oil & Gas and Power sectors over the last two decades,” Ikeja Electric stated.
She holds a degree in Banking and Finance from the University of Lagos and is also an alumnus of Harvard Business School where she earned certification in Advance Management.
“A focused and result-oriented professional, Soetan will lead the next phase of growth and ensure Ikeja Electric remains a ‘customer first, technology now’ organisation, through reliable power supply, improved customer service and tech-driven innovative products and services,” the statement said.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
South Africa: African Energy Chamber Terminates Partnership With Africa Oil & Power
The African Energy Chamber has terminated its partnership with Africa Oil & Power (AOP).
The Chamber and AOP entered into partnership since 2018. The Chamber has supported Africa Oil & Power in the organization of several highly-successful international events and investment conferences.
However, in a statement issued and copied to energynewsafrica.com, the Chamber said it has terminated its partnership with AOP.
According to the statement, the termination of the partnership reflects a new strategy for the Chamber to focus on key issues pertaining to the industry and implement its own investment outreach strategies.
“We sincerely thank Africa Oil & Power for their hard work until now,” Nj Ayuk, Executive Chairman at the African Energy Chamber and author of ‘Billions At Play: The Future of African Energy and Doing Deals’ said.
“Under our partnership, we have been able to work on very important projects and strategic conferences in South Sudan, Angola, South Africa, Equatorial Guinea and the United Kingdom. We believe their journey is only the beginning and wish them the best for the future.”
The African Energy Chamber remains open and committed to supporting initiatives and efforts that are focused on pushing an agenda beneficial to all Africans.
“From 2020 onwards, the Chamber will be allocating increasing resources to key issues that we believe are important to the oil industry such as creating an enabling environment for the energy industry to grow, attracting investment into Africa, implementing lower taxes and better fiscal regimes, supporting gas monetization, promoting women in energy, developing local content, fighting energy poverty and developing opportunities for the African diaspora to play a role in developing our natural resources at home.”
The African Energy Chamber will continue to work in partnerships with several events and conferences, whose list can be found on its website www.EnergyChamber.org.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: Energy Minister Promises 1900 Laptops For Teachers In Hohoe Constituency
Ghana’s Minister for Energy, John –Peter Amewu has hinted of his plans to roll out a “one teacher, one laptop” project in the Constituency soon.
The initiative is to help teachers get themselves abreast of technology in the delivery of quality teaching and learning to enhance academic performance in the constituency.
Mr. Amewu said this when he presented a 2020 Presidential Diary, a Microsoft laptop and an undisclosed amount of money to Master Hotor Prosper, a student of Bishop Herman College and past student of the St. Francis Demonstration Junior High School (JHS) in Hohoe for being a recipient of the 2019 Presidential Award.
He said the presentation was to encourage other students to emulate the efforts of Master Hotor and excel in their examinations and congratulated efforts of teachers adding that “we are doing all this with the aim of projecting the Hohoe Municipality in the country for people to come and see what we are doing here.”
Mr. Amewu said he organised free vacation classes for candidates who sat for the 2019 BECE in the Municipality to enable them to cover some topics they were not able to, during school hours and was happy to note that beneficiaries passed very well.
The Energy Minister told the Ghana News Agency (GNA) that there were about 1900 teachers in the constituency, which the project was expected to cover and added that “we are trying to do the first 500 teachers by the end of April this year”.
He said the project would enable the teachers to build their capacity to become well equipped to transfer the knowledge to school children in the Constituency.
The performance of schools in the Hohoe Municipality in the 2019 Basic Education Certificate Examination (BECE) has witnessed tremendous improvement with 16 out of 77 schools recording a 100 per cent pass while no school recorded a zero per cent in all subjects.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: IWD 2020: Minority Leader Hails Kadija Amoah’s Appointment As Country Manager Of Aker Energy
Ghana’s Minority Leader in Parliament, Haruna Iddrisu has hailed the appointment of Kadijah Amoah as the Country Manager of Aker Energy Ghana.
Madam Kadijah Amoah was appointed in February this year to succeed Jan Helge Skogen after the company restructured its leadership.
Mrs Amoah, a Ghanaian citizen, is a lawyer by training and holds degrees in law and political science, a master’s degree in international business, and awaits the award of a postgraduate diploma in strategy and innovation.
Prior to joining Aker Energy, Mrs Amoah was a Senior Foreign Lawyer at Clifford Chance Germany, one of the largest law firms in the world.
Speaking to a Ghanaian radio station, Joy FM on the International Women’s Day, he said, “I hail the appointment of first Ghanaian Chief Executive Officer of Aker Oil, notwithstanding the critical issues we raised as a Minority. She needs to go beyond personal carrier success to institutional and organisational success of Aker in Ghana and not just rely on the extraordinary incentives of the government.”
Mr Iddrisu stressed that the Ghanaian society needs to give capable women the opportunity to contribute their quota to its socioeconomic development.
“Women empowerment and policies aim at enhancing more space for women within the
Public space contribute to addressing a long standing historical problem of dominated patriarchal society in Ghana,” he said.
The Tamale South legislator was of the view that the new Aker Energy Country Manager has a big task ahead to make her company competitive in Ghana and beyond in the industry.
source: www.energynewsafrica.com
IET Ghana Celebrates Engineers
The Institution of Engineering and Technology, Ghana, has congratulated engineers in the West Africa nation as the world celebrates World Engineering Day.
The Council of IET applauded the hard work of all engineering practitioners in the country for their various roles in ensuring the wheels of development continues to grind effectively.
“We use this occasion to encourage all engineering practitioners to continue to offer their best in their various fields of engineering endeavours, knowing very well that our service is for the good of humanity,” IET said.
Oil Prices Collapse 8% As Novak Tells OPEC+ To Pump At Will
Oil prices plunged by more than 8 percent on Friday, as the market continued to digest unfavorable OPEC news, the latest of which was Russian Energy Minister Alexander Novak telling OPEC+ countries that they were free to pump oil at will after April 1.
At about 10pm on Friday, WTI Crude had plunged by 8.5% at 41.58 and Brent Crude was plummeting by 8.72% at $45.51.
Oil prices hit their lowest level since 2017, the year in which OPEC and its non-OPEC allies led by Russia began their production cut pact to try to erase the glut on the market and prop up oil prices. The pact has been extended several times since it was launched in January 2017, most recently in December 2019 for three months to the end of March.
But this time around, it looks like the divide between the two leading OPEC and non-OPEC producers, Saudi Arabia and Russia, is too wide to bridge.
On Thursday, OPEC’s energy ministers met and recommended that the OPEC+ partners extend the current cuts through the end of 2020 and deepen those cuts by 1.5 million bpd in Q2 in response to the slump in demand due to the coronavirus outbreak.
Later on Thursday, OPEC ministers met again and decided that the 1.5 million bpd additional cut should not be only for Q2 but for the rest of 2020 as well
But come Friday and the talks between OPEC and its non-OPEC partners led by Russia became very difficult and neither side was willing to give in. Russia continued to insist that no additional cuts should be made, while OPEC and its leader Saudi Arabia insisted on further cuts and on ‘no plan B’ if Russia is not on board.
Reports started to emerge from the Vienna meeting on Friday that the OPEC+ partners have failed to agree on deeper cuts, as wanted by OPEC, because of Russia’s continued resistance to join additional cuts, which would hurt the production plans of the major Russian oil companies.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: Sunon Asogli Donates Office Equipment To Kpone District Police Command
Ghana’s largest independent power producer, Sunon Asogli Power (GH) Ltd has donated office equipment to the Kpone District police command.
The donation formed part of the power company’s Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR).
Speaking at a short ceremony to present the items, Chairman of Sunon Asogli Power (GH) Ltd, Yang Qun said, “We at Sunon Asogli Power do not shy away from our responsibilities. We work and live in a community that has accepted us and has been favourable to us. And when it is our turn to give back, we do it with all of our hearts.”
According to him, it is their responsibility to assist the police to give them adequate protection.
He urged them to continue to work hard for the betterment of the district in which they have been posted and the country as a whole.
He said without the police to ensure safety, there would be an increase in criminal activities and the like in the community.
“We want to thank you for your hard work and dedication to the course,” he said.
Supt. Seth Tay, the Kpone District Police Commander, who received the items on behalf of the police, thanked management of Sunon Asogli for the donation and pledged their commitment to ensure that residents and businesses in the area are given adequate protection.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: Export Of Petroleum Products To Mali Drops Significantly
It has emerged that the volumes of petroleum products exported by Ghana to its West African neighbour, Mali, has dropped significantly.
The situation has made authorities in Mali become worried due to the high quality of products from Ghana to the Malian market.
Deputy Director General of ONAP, Mali’s downstream petroleum regulator, Issa Kondo disclosed this in an interview when he led a delegation to pay a courtesy call on the Chamber of Bulk Oil Distributors (CBOD) in Accra, capital of Ghana.
According to him, the decrease in volumes of the products was the basis of their visit to Ghana.
“Our mission here is quite simple. We are a landlocked country and, therefore, we import most of our products from different countries to Mali. We noticed that supply of products from Ghana has dropped significantly, so we thought it proper to come to Ghana to approach our Ghanaian counterpart to find out what the challenges are on the ground and together find solutions to the reasons for the drop in volume.”
He explained that aside engaging CBOD, they had also engaged with Ghana’s National Petroleum Authority (NPA) and Bulk Oil Storage and Transportation (BOST) Company Limited.
According to Mr Kondo, during their engagement with the NPA, they identified two key issues which he said were the contributory factor to the decrease in volumes of petroleum products to the Malian market.
He mentioned the bank guarantee which requires a 100 percent cash at the bank from companies and NPA’s exporting guidelines as the major challenges negatively affecting export trade between Ghana and Mali.
He, however, said together with the NPA, some steps have been to ensure that these two key issues are resolved immediately so as to reverse the current trend.
“Together with our partners in Ghana, which is the NPA, we have managed to come up [with] or identified some steps that we can take going forward to be able to increase the volumes between Ghana and Mali. So, we are just looking forward to the implementation of the various options and steps that we have identified. With the NPA, we really looked at the guidelines that they have in place for the exportation of petroleum products to Mali and, together we were able to identify certain bottlenecks preventing people from coming to buy fuel from Ghana,” he noted.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
According to Mr Kondo, during their engagement with the NPA, they identified two key issues which he said were the contributory factor to the decrease in volumes of petroleum products to the Malian market.
He mentioned the bank guarantee which requires a 100 percent cash at the bank from companies and NPA’s exporting guidelines as the major challenges negatively affecting export trade between Ghana and Mali.
He, however, said together with the NPA, some steps have been to ensure that these two key issues are resolved immediately so as to reverse the current trend.
“Together with our partners in Ghana, which is the NPA, we have managed to come up [with] or identified some steps that we can take going forward to be able to increase the volumes between Ghana and Mali. So, we are just looking forward to the implementation of the various options and steps that we have identified. With the NPA, we really looked at the guidelines that they have in place for the exportation of petroleum products to Mali and, together we were able to identify certain bottlenecks preventing people from coming to buy fuel from Ghana,” he noted.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com Ghana: PURC Congratulates ECG For Developing Power Mobile App
Ghana’s Public Utilities Regulatory Commission (PURC), has congratulated the country’s power distribution company, ECG, for going a step further to develop an application which seeks to enhance its services to consumers.
Last month, the ECG outdoored the ECG Power Mobile App which was developed internally by the staff of the IT Department.
The power app is intended to ease the frustration of consumers and enable them to purchase credit onto their smart and prepaid meters even at wee hours.
In a public notice sighted by energynewsafrica.com, PURC said:
“We also wish to assure the public that we are monitoring the performance of the App and encourage electricity customers on the appropriate electronic meters to take advantage of the improved technology for payment of bills, deposit money for prepayment meters, make enquiries and also lodge complaints with ECG.”
The PURC, nonetheless, emphasised that any customer who finds issues with the ECG Power Mobile App should report to the nearest ECG office and if not resolved, forward such complaint to the PURC for resolution.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com South Africa: Eskom Pursues Liquidation Of Trillian After Court Ruling
South Africa’s utility company, Eskom is set to institute liquidation proceedings against Trillian as Supreme Court of Appeal dismisses Trillian’s appeal on R600 million case.
Eskom announced that it will institute liquidation proceedings against Trillian Management Consulting and Trillian Capital Partners in the North Gauteng High Court in Pretoria this month.
André de Ruyter, Eskom Group Chief Executive, says: “Eskom has a moral duty and legal obligation to do everything it can to claw back all the monies which were illegally paid out during the height of State Capture.”
He adds: “This case is only one of the many in which Eskom’s management will attempt to recoup what is due to the people of South Africa.”
In late February 2020, the Supreme Court of Appeal dismissed the Trillian Management Consulting’s and Trillian Capital Partners’ application for leave to appeal the North Gauteng High Court’s judgement of 2 October 2019 in proceedings instituted by Eskom.
This follows legal proceedings instituted by Eskom, asking for the liquidation of the Trillian entities, and joining Eric Wood to the proceedings, for failing to pay R600 million that Eskom had irregularly paid to the entities during 2016.
In June 2019 Eskom approached the North Gauteng High Court, seeking an order setting aside and declaring as null and void Eskom’s payment of approximately R600 million to the Trillian entities.
In October 2019 the court granted the order, and ordered the Trillian entities to pay back the money within five days.
This was part of the R1.6 billion payment in a contract Eskom had entered into with McKinsey & Co. In 2018 McKinsey paid back more than R1 billion, including interest, to Eskom.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
Ghana: Relocate Or Face Demolition– GRIDCo To Encroachers
Ghana’s power transmission company, GRIDCo, has served notice to all persons and institutions that have encroached on lands bordering its transmission lines to take immediate steps to relocate.
According to GRIDCo, it would have no other option than use force to evict the encroachers if they failed to relocate.
In a press statement copied to energynewsafrica.com, it said the decision is due to the associated safety risks its lines pose to the public and the need or regular maintenance works on the lines by the company.
Under the Transmission Line Protection Regulations, 1967 (LI 542) as amended by Regulation No. LI 1737 of 2004, it is an offence for persons or institutions to conduct any form of activity in relation to the lands around the location of power transmission lines.
Activities including drilling, excavating, lorry parks, shops, garages, bars and real estate operated in the area extending up to twenty (20) meters on each side from the centre line of the transmission towers are prohibited.
“These activities pose a danger to human life and property as transmission line faults can result in casualties and damage to properties. Outage to customers could also be prolonged due to restricted access to the Right-of-Ways,” GRIDCo said.
Commenting on the development, Chief Executive of GRIDCo, Jonathan Amoako-Baah said: “We are very concerned with this trend across the country. Though we have chalked some success by ejecting some encroachers, others have remained adamant. Over the years, we have carried out a lot of sensitisation programmes including print and electronic media publications, Information Services Department campaigns and joint engagements with Municipal Assemblies. We are also ready to undertake demolition exercises, where necessary, as part of our mandate to ensure the right thing is done. We are committed to carrying out our mandate as a power transmitter and will do whatever is necessary to prevent interferences.”
Over the past years, GRIDCo has had issues with encroachers along its transmission towers and lands.
These persons carry out all forms of activities at the risk of their lives.
GRIDCo is working with the relevant state institutions to remove properties and structures and to curb all forms of human activities, within the right-of-ways to safeguard public safety and ensure reliability of electricity supply. The company may even be compelled to surcharge the costs incurred during such exercises to the encroachers.
Source:www.energynewsafrica.com
How Man Made Huge Savings From Generating Own Electricity Through Renewable Energy (Video)
Click on the video below to watch the man who generate own electricity
Ghana: Gov’t Asked To Reduce Tax Component On LPG To Increase Patronage
The Acting Director for Social and Environmental Impact Assessment at Ghana’s Energy Commission, Eric Ofori Nyarko is urging the Government of Ghana to reduce the 23 percent tax component on the Liquefied Petroleum Gas (LPG) to encourage mass patronage of the commodity in the West African country.
He said the introduction of LPG was to discourage the use of wood fuel but since the price of the commodity continues to increase, many households which were using the product have stopped.
“I would not opt for the abolishing of taxes on LPG. We can reduce the taxes or cross subsidise the taxes, so that at least, we can remove those taxes on LPG and put them onto liquid fuels if possible. So certainly, we need reduction of taxes on LPG to encourage people to use it more,” Ofori Nyarko suggested.
According to him, the Ghana Cylinder Manufacturing Company Ltd. was established to produce the cylinders, gas stoves and associated auxiliaries to reduce cost associated with the use of LPG.
However, he said he sees the lack of proper distribution to bad road areas in the remote villages with infrastructure to store as well as affordable price enable the poor to buy as a setback.
Meanwhile, the objective is to ensure that the country penetrates the use of LPG around to reduce the use of wood-fuel.
“But, unfortunately, we have not been able to balance the cost production of LPG with these issues. Price keeps going high and people who are in the hinterland because of bad roads are not able to get access to LPG to use. Enough facilities are not built over there to allow them to use LPG,” he stated.
Sadly, he said most people are reverting to the use of wood-fuels as a result of the hike in the LPG price.
“So it is not allowing for the policy to achieve its objective of reducing wood-fuel use. Institutions and government that are concerned will take measures to ensure that the price of LPG is reduced and ensure that enough facilities are built in the country for the transportation and storage of LPG.”
There has been calls by members of the LPG Marketers Association for the government to reduce the price of LPG to increase consumption of the product.
The association claims patronage of the product has dwindled because of the high cost of the product.
Speaking to energynewsafrica.com at a training programme organised by Energy Commission for Energy Reporters, Eric Nyarko entreated the government to relook at the current price of LPG in order to increase consumption.
Touching on structures near gas pipelines, Ofori Nyarko urged District, Municipal and Metropolitan Assemblies that grant building permits to intensify public education to prospective occupants near such areas to beware of the consequences.
He said unexpected explosion could result in deaths and loss of properties.
“I will plead with the assemblies, who are the development authorities who give these permits, to ensure that these right of ways of energy infrastructure especially gas pipelines, are respected,” he advised.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com