UNIFIED SOLUTIONS The African Utility Week and Clean Power Africa conference and exhibition has formed strategic partnerships with the Department of Energy and Barack Obama's Power Africa initiative
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The African Utility Week and Clean Power Africa conference and exhibition have this year attracted two key partners, the Department of Energy (DoE), which has committed to a three-year partnership, and US President Barack Obama’s private-sector-led Power Africa initiative aimed at improving access to power in all of sub-Saharan Africa.
Energy Minister Tina Joemat-Pettersson will deliver a keynote address at the event, which will run at the Cape Town International Convention Centre from May 12 to 14. She is also scheduled to attend the event’s invitation-only CEO Forum, which brings together power generation, distribution and related-services leaders from across Africa.
The Minister also forms part of African Utility Week’s advisory board, which arranges the events programme and sets the debate agenda.
Meanwhile, Power Africa coordinator Andrew Herscowitz says that the initiative, which was established in June 2013 during Obama’s visit to Cape Town, regards the yearly African Utility Week and Clean Power Africa conference and exhibition as a fitting platform to engage with African power stakeholders on ways “to connect Africa to the global grid”.
He explains that, thus far, transactions that are expected to operate more than 4 100 MW have reached financial closure as part of Power Africa.
“This has prompted President Obama to increase the goal from 10 000 MW to 30 000 MW and from 20-million connections to 60-million new home and business connections,” he adds.
Some of the projects Power Africa has worked on include the US government’s Overseas Private Investment Corporation’s grant for multinational renewable-energy company Gigawatt Global, which has commissioned an 8.5 MW solar project in Rwanda. The project will benefit rural communities and is one of the first projects under Power Africa to produce power.
As a response to the Ebola outbreak in Liberia, Herscowitz explains that about $2-million of the Power Africa funds was redirected to buy power generators for Ebola treatment units in Liberia.
“The generators enable health workers to sterilise their clothes, which helps reduce the spread of the virus, and for the treatment centres to operate 24 hours a day, seven days a week.
“Further, the generators have enabled patients to charge their cellphones so that they can tell loved ones of their treatment and, in worse cases, that they are facing death,” he concludes.