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Johannesburg’s City Power among big winners at African Utility Week awards

19th May 2016

By: Kim Cloete

Creamer Media Correspondent

  

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Johannesburg’s City Power has scooped the award for Africa’s Power Utility of the Year, while the George Airport solar plant and Sierra Leone’s Kandeh Yumkella of the Sustainable Energy for All Initiative also won awards.

Uganda’s National Water and Sewerage Corporation won the coveted Water Utility of the Year award for the second year in a row, while the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA) won the Finance award.

The African Utility Week industry awards in 11 categories were announced at African Utility Week in Cape Town, which had attracted over 5 000 participants and 80 utilities from across Africa this year.

City Power’s flagship solar-water heating programme was cited as a key reason for the utility being recognised as Power Utility of the Year. City Power had fitted solar-water geysers in about 70 000 low-income households around Johannesburg over a period of three years. The project generated 20 000 job opportunities and was one of the biggest projects of its kind in Africa.

“The award is an affirmation of the hard work done by the City Power team and this accolade galvanises us to work harder to provide our customers with the superior service they deserve,” said City Power MD Sicelo Xulu.

Other finalists in the Power Utility of the Year category were Ghana Grid Company, KenGen from Kenya, Kenya Power and Lighting Company and Volta River Authority from Ghana. 

Meanwhile, Yumkella, United Nations under-secretary general, former special representative of the secretary general and CEO of Sustainable Energy for All won the Lifetime Achievement Award.  He mobilised global action towards a sustainable energy future and is also Sierra Leone’s former Minister of Trade, Industry and State Enterprises.

“I know the energy revolution is powering up and ready to take off. We’ve seen again this week that we have the technology and innovation. Sometimes we are too suspicious of each other, we should embrace energy trade with each other,” he said at the awards ceremony.

The DBSA won its award for developing an innovative financing instrument to support local partners and communities to acquire equity stakes in companies. Local partners are then included in the overall financing package.

“More than anything, it is testament to the hard work of the energy team and visionary leadership of the DBSA in addressing South Africa’s energy challenge,” said DBSA energy specialist Lungile Mashele, who added that the development finance institution was keen to get involved in projects beyond South Africa’s borders.

The George Airport solar plant, which won the Energy/Water Efficiency Project of the Year award, is owned and operated by Airports Company South Africa. The solar photovoltaic plant would meet about 41% of the energy demand of the airport.

The Akon Lighting Africa Initiative, which provides villages with access to clean and affordable electricity through solar, won the Clean Energy Project of the Year award. Since launching, the group has branched into 15 countries, including Senegal, Mali, Niger and Benin covering 480 communities.

Edited by Creamer Media Reporter

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