The energy challenges the African continent is currently facing are going to be solved by entrepreneurs or private sector players and not governments.
This is according a Ugandan-based entrepreneur and project coordinator at Power Africa, Dominic Mark Mugisha.
He argued that it is going to be difficult for African governments to be able to resolve power challenges without private sector players because it requires a lot of money.
In his view, entrepreneurs or the private businesses are the ones who have the resources and technology to turn things around, stressing that what the private sector players need is for government to create enabling environment by removing certain bottlenecks that frustrate and impede the efforts of the private sector players.
“We want a clear regulatory framework. We want certainty. There should be clear guidelines and we want prompt response to our requests from regulators,” he stated.
Sharing his experience with participants during a panel discussion at the IEEE Power Africa Conference, in Abuja, Nigeria, Mr Mugisha, whose company is into mini-grid development, enumerated a number of challenges they go through to get things done.
He said in the past, it could take one between two or more years to get a permit to start a solar power project in Uganda.
He, however, said the situation is changing.
“Because of the proactive engagement between industry players and the regulatory the time has now reduced tremendously. We can now get a project licence or permit in about six or eight months, depending on the project side,” he explained.
He said the private sector knows how to use the latest technology and resources to address energy challenges and urged governments in Africa to do well to make things easier for them.
Suleiman Yusuf, founder of Blue Camel Energy, Nigeria, and CEO of REI, Cameroon, Jude Numfor, were other panel members who shared their experiences as entrepreneurs in the energy sector in their respective countries.
Source. www.energynewsafrica.com/courtesy: Energy Commission of Ghana
It has brought together academicians, engineers, researchers, scientists and students from several countries including India, Uganda, Cameroon, USA, Ghana and other parts of Africa.
Power Africa conference provides forum for researchers, engineers and practitioners to present and discuss latest research findings, ideas and emerging technologies and applications in the area of power systems integrations, business models, technological advances, policies and regulatory framework for the African continent.
Opening the conference, IEEE Nigeria Section Chair Engr. Raphael Onokshakpor said: “We at IEEE and PES Nigeria Section are pleased to now formally validate our capacity and zeal to host international events of this scale in our dear nation, which is a developing country that has a lot of potential in terms of human capital and resources.
He stressed the need for the resource persons present to try and make an impact by sharing their experiences and ideas to ensure tangible results by the time the conference ends.
“The Nigerian Electricity System clearly needs solutions and interventions which can help bring the Nigerian Electricity power industry to the state where it would be capable of not only serving the country’s basic needs but also to drive industrialisation for Nigeria and also for other part of sub-Saharan Africa.”
On her part, Chair of IEEE Africa Council Prof. Gloria Chukwudebe noted that the 5th edition of IEEE power Africa conference would be unique, as there would be interesting keynote addresses, presentations by distinguished scientists and engineers on smart energy regulation and policy, smart grid designs, smart technology applications, electrical safety and industry standards, renewable energy solutions and opportunities for private sector investment.
“Access to clean energy is still a big challenge to the sub-Saharan Africa. This conference is a very good opportunity for research scientists, engineers and practitioners to deliberate on latest research findings, ideas, emerging technologies and applications that will proffer solutions for the African continent to fast track achievement of the sustainable development goals,” she said.
Meanwhile, General Chair and Co-Chair of the Organising Committee of 2019 Power Africa, Chief Tunde Y. Salihu, has said that the growing importance of this conference towards getting African nations to meet up with their counterparts worldwide is the major reason the IEEE, Industrial Application and Power and Energy Societies have continued to sponsor this conference.
He commended all the organising committee members for their commitment towards the successful organisation of the conference.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com
“There have been some few problems of little delays in terms of having the first gas. Now that the Karpowership is available here, we need to quickly connect with the first gas. It is currently going to feed on heavy fuel for some short period, but the quicker you are able to supply it with gas, the better it would be for us. The pipelines for the gas has been completed, the transmission lines are in place, but at the OTS, there are certain things that need to be done where the gas would have to be retreated in terms of heating and bringing the pressure down.
“So all these would be investigated to know exactly where the cause is coming from. You realise that it has to do with just the access. Ghana Gas is of the view that certain things must be done before they can take possession, but we think that this is not the final completion but a practical completion, which gives allowance for deferred liability period.
“So during those different liability periods, any differed liability that occurs can be corrected so they (Ghana Gas) can go ahead and then take over at that period while other issues are dealt with. So these are the issues were are looking at,” he added.
The General Manager of Amandi, David-Ben Ayun, who is supervising the construction of the Onshore Terminal Station and the gas pipeline, said they are committed to the schedule.
“We are putting effort, even though, we have a lot of delays from third parties not from our side. We are expected to give first gas by the close of September,” he said.
Meanwhile, Managing Director of Karpowership Ghana Company Limited, Volkan Buyikbicer says it would resume power generation with Heavy Fuel Oil to the national grid by August ending, even before first gas in September.
The Karpowership would be adding 470 megawatts at full capacity and would help to reduce power generation with complete operation with gas.
Source: www.energynewsafrica.com 
Currently, there is a customer growth of 0.58%, reflecting the addition of more than 20,000 new customers since PDS took over.
Furthermore, PDS inherited an accumulated debt of GHS3.365billion, which has been reduced to GHS2.6billion.
You can easily deduce from the table below that system reliability has also improved significantly. PDS has reduced the frequency of weekly outages which was in the region of 1000 outages per week when they took over, to around 300 outages per week. For example, from March to June 2018, System average interruption frequency index was 23.17hours, but within the same period of March to June 2019, the interruption frequency has been reduced to 18.43hours.
In the same vein, system average interruption duration index between March and June 2018 was 24.87hours but reduced to 17.26hours from March to June 2019. That is about 30.6% improvement as compared to the same period last year, where a customer experienced additional 8 hours of power outage.
Without further elaboration, the general productivity and efficiency of the Company has improved, even though staff strength has reduced by 0.39%. This high performance can be attributed to the introduction of electricity distribution best standards and practices like the enhancement of work ethics and systems, re-alignment, employee performance measurement, etc.
This has created a high morale among staff due to timely payment of salaries, better conditions of service and the general clarity of organizational focus and strategies.
Source: Kofi Brako
