i
Integration, sustainability top Africa’s power agenda
POWER-GEN 2015’s expert advisory board has
identified integration of renewable energy into the
traditional power ecosystem, universal access to
power, and funding and sustainability as key issues
to address at Africa’s premier power sector event.
independent power producers, questions are arising
around regulation, best practice and funding models.
In some regions, a cost versus standards debate was
emerging as foreign developers entered the African
market, they noted.
The integration of renewable energy into the
traditional power ecosystem, universal access to
power and funding and sustainability issues are
among the top challenges facing sub-Saharan Africa’s
power generation sector in the short term. This
emerged during a meeting of an expert Advisory
Board to assess the most crucial issues facing Africa’s
power sector, which will come under discussion at
POWER-GEN Africa 2015 in Cape Town in July 2015.
Renewable energy, which is now seeing strong
uptake as the cost of generation drops, is also
emerging as a top strategic issue as questions arise
around the regulatory environment, integration
models and pricing structures, the Board noted.
Investors are increasingly looking to projects in
Africa, such as the recently-opened 96 megawatt
(MW) photovoltaic (PV) Jasper Solar Plant near
Kimberley, developed by a consortium including
Google, and the 160 MW Nour 1 thermo-solar plant
set to go live in Morocco next year.
The Board includes academics, industry body
representatives and experts from many African
countries, with members from organisations such
as the National Energy Regulator of South Africa
(NERSA), the Southern African Alternative Energy
Association (SAAEA), Eskom, Renewable Energy and
Energy Efficiency Partnership (REEEP), the Lesotho
Highlands Water Commission and CEFA Tanzania.
Nigel Blackaby, POWER-GEN Africa Event Director
& Conference Director for PennWell’s International
Power Group, said across Africa, regulators and
utilities were facing similar challenges in terms of
sustainability and service delivery. In addition, many
were tasked with an integrated power generation
and distribution function, which had prompted
PennWell to co-locate POWER-GEN Africa with
DistribuTECH Africa, to allow the growing numbers
of pan-African delegates to attend both events and so
make efficient use of their time.
The Advisory Board, which also assessed abstracts
submitted ahead of the conference, noted that a
number of key themes were coming to the fore
in the African power generation sector. One such
theme was funding and investment, they said. With
Africa seen as potentially the next big market for
22
africandesignmagazine.com
Meeting growing power demand through strategies
such as the liberalisation of markets, government
grants and international development initiatives; as
well as new models for controlling the cost of power
generation, were also issues the sector is facing.
Other themes impacting the sector now include
the interconnection of regional grids and progress
towards regional power pools, centralised versus
distributed generation models and capacity building.
The Advisory Board will select papers addressing
these and other key issues for presentation at
POWER-GEN Africa 2015, where up to 3 000 global
thought leaders and stakeholders will convene from
15-17 July 2015 at the Cape Town International
Convention Centre, Cape Town, South Africa, under
the theme ‘Emerging Opportunities in the World’s
Fastest Growing Continent’. The event, to be hosted
by PennWell Corporation, will attract a broad
range of delegates, including regional electricity
distribution companies, power producers, utilities,
oil and gas companies, energy and engineering
consultants, government and regulators,
environmental agencies, development agencies and
investors. AD