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Hydropower News

Zimbabwe miners appeal to Minister over power-supply failure

By: Bloomberg 26th November 2019 Zimbabwe’s mining industry has appealed to the government for help, saying output is slumping as the state-owned power company fails to honour electricity-supply contracts. Zesa Holdings has broken its promise to “ring-fence” supplies to miners, Zimbabwe’s Chamber of Mines wrote in a letter last... →

Zim set to benefit from pumped hydroelectric energy storage power plant

By: Simone Liedtke 25th November 2019 With Zimbabwe currently experiencing up to 18 hours of load-shedding daily, business development service provider Ngonyezi Projects executive director Tomas Persson says the company’s pumped hydroelectric energy storage power plant at Osborne dam, in Zimbabwe, will contribute to the reduction of... →

Angola may seek almost half the power from a $14bn Congo hydro plant

By: Bloomberg 11th November 2019 Angola may buy as much as 5 000 MW from neighbouring Democratic Republic of Congo’s proposed $14-billion hydropower plant. In its current design, the Inga III dam would be the biggest hydropower plant in Africa, generating 11 050 MW. The two partners developing the project – one Chinese, one... →

Egypt, Ethiopia, Sudan to try to resolve dam dispute by January 15

By: Reuters 7th November 2019 The foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan agreed on Wednesday to work toward resolving their dispute over the filling and operation of a massive dam project in Ethiopia by Jan. 15, 2020, the US Treasury said. In a joint statement released after US Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin hosted... →

World Bank ready to spend $5bn in Congo, with conditions

By: Bloomberg 4th November 2019 The World Bank could provide as much as $5-billion to Democratic Republic of Congo over the next five years if its new government commits to raising more revenue, fighting corruption and opening up its economy. The financing would be a welcome boost for Congo’s new President, Felix Tshisekedi,... →

Congo says $14bn Inga dam on track despite disagreements

By: Bloomberg 1st November 2019 The Democratic Republic of Congo remains committed to building a $14-billion dam on the Congo River, even as the project is bogged down in disagreements between its developers, according to the government agency overseeing the project. Congo envisages an 11 050 MW facility that can export 5 000... →

Tourism, energy at risk as Africa's largest waterfall runs low

By: Bloomberg 1st November 2019 The flow at the Africa’s biggest waterfall is at its lowest since 1995, highlighting the threat posed by a drought to tourism and electricity generation in Zimbabwe and Zambia. Flow has slumped to 109 m3/s at Victoria Falls, a 1.7 km curtain of falling water at the peak of a normal wet season,... →

Photo by Bloomberg
The Victoria Falls before the drought

Egypt says Washington to host Nov 6 meeting on Ethiopia dam dispute

By: Reuters 30th October 2019 The Trump administration has invited Egypt, Sudan and Ethiopia to a meeting in Washington on Nov. 6 to try to break the deadlock in negotiations over a giant hydropower dam on Ethiopia's Blue Nile, Egypt's foreign minister said on Tuesday. Earlier this month, Cairo said it accepted a US... →

Congo’s $14bn dam project threatened by disagreements

By: Bloomberg 28th October 2019 Serious disagreements between groups of Spanish and Chinese developers that want to build a 11 000 MW hydropower plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) may scuttle plans for the $14-billion project, according to a report. The Inga III dam would be the biggest hydroelectric power station... →

Three power plants financed by AfDB boost Cameroon's power supply

By: African News Agency 25th October 2019 Three projects financed by the African Development Bank for $121.4-million in 2010/11 are starting to provide Cameroon with more reliable electricity supply, the institution has said. With an estimated 23 000 MW hydroelectric production capacity, Cameroon has the second-largest hydroelectric... →

Zimbabwe to cut power to mines, others over $77m in unpaid bills

By: Reuters 24th October 2019 Zimbabwe's State-owned electricity distributor, grappling with drought and ageing equipment, said on Thursday it will disconnect mines, farms and other users as it looks to recover $77-million in unpaid bills. The Southern African nation is experiencing daily power cuts lasting up to 18 hours... →

Ethiopia probes alleged dam misspending that slowed construction

By: Bloomberg 23rd October 2019 Ethiopian authorities are probing missing funds a military contractor already accused of graft was meant to spend on a showpiece dam on a Nile tributary that’s raised tensions with Egypt. Military-linked Metals & Engineering Corp, which was replaced as a contractor on the Grand Ethiopian... →

Egypt accepts invitation to meet in US over Ethiopia dam dispute

By: Reuters 23rd October 2019 Egypt said on Tuesday it had accepted a US invitation to a meeting of foreign ministers over a project for a giant hydropower dam on Ethiopia's Blue Nile that is causing an escalating spat between the two African countries. The meeting of foreign ministers of Egypt, Ethiopia and Sudan, the three... →

Egypt, Ethiopia leaders to meet in coming days over GERD dam

By: Bloomberg 22nd October 2019 Ethiopian Prime Minister Abiy Ahmed will meet President Abdel-Fattah El-Sisi of Egypt to discuss a 5 150 MW dam that has strained relations between the two nations over access to water. Egypt is concerned that the Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam being built 3 200 km upstream will restrict the... →

South Africa to test market for emergency power ‘gap fillers’ as IRP is finalised

By: Terence Creamer 18th October 2019 South Africa will release a request for information (RFI) in the coming weeks to test the market for solutions to close an immediate electricity supply gap of between 2 000 MW and 3 000 MW, which has emerged primarily as a result of a fall in the energy availability factor (EAF) from Eskom’s coal... →

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe on the Integrated Resource Plan 2019 allocations and the need for short-term supply solutions. Camera Work: Kutlwano Matlala. Editing: Nicholas Boyd. Recorded: 18.10.2019

Egypt denounces Ethiopia for moving ahead with Nile dam amid water-shortage fears

By: Reuters 10th October 2019 Egypt denounced Ethiopia on Wednesday for moving forward with building and operating a hyropower dam on the Nile, which Cairo worries will threaten already scarce water supplies. Ethiopia, the source of the Blue Nile which joins the White Nile in Khartoum and runs on to Egypt, says the dam will... →

Plans to speed up electrification in Africa

By: Kim Cloete 10th October 2019 Africa needs to connect around 73-million people to electricity every year to reach the goal of affordable and sustainable energy for every single African by 2030, says the African Union (AU) Commission. Atef Marzouk, head of the Energy Division of the AU Commission’s Department of Infrastructure... →

Egypt urges international mediation over Nile river deadlock

By: African News Agency 7th October 2019 Seven years of talks between Egypt and Ethiopia in Sudan over a massive dam construction on the Nile river have reached a deadlock with Cairo appealing to the international community to intervene. Ethiopia began constructing the Grand Renaissance dam on the Blue Nile in 2012 saying the... →

Ethiopia dam official blames construction delays on conglomerate METEC

By: Reuters 1st October 2019 Construction of a $4-billion dam at the heart of Ethiopia's bid to become Africa's biggest power exporter has been delayed five years as engineers had to replace shoddy work by a conglomerate pulled off the job last year, a project official said. The Grand Ethiopian Renaissance Dam, announced in... →

Ethiopia rejects Egypt's plan for operating giant dam on the Nile

By: Reuters 19th September 2019 Ethiopia on Wednesday rejected a proposal by Egypt to operate a $4-billion hydropower dam the Horn of Africa country is constructing on the Nile, further deepening a dispute between the two nations over the project. In a press conference in Ethiopia's capital Addis Ababa, Sileshi Bekele, minister... →

Uganda says its power generation capacity will jump 55% by year-end

By: Reuters 18th September 2019 Uganda's electricity generation capacity is set to jump by 55.5% in December when a Chinese-financed hydropower plant and other, smaller projects are commissioned, the east African country's energy minister said. In recent years, Uganda has been wooing private-sector energy investors and taking... →

Zambia may import 300 MW of power from South Africa, prices could double – minister

By: Reuters 17th September 2019 Zambia is in talks with South African power utility Eskom to import 300 MW of electricity, Energy Minister Mathew Nkhuwa said on Tuesday, adding that retail prices could double once imports begin. Zambia has a power deficit of more than 750 MW because of low water levels at hydropower dams,... →

Egypt and Ethiopia at odds as talks over Blue Nile dam resume

By: Reuters 17th September 2019 Egypt says Ethiopia has "summarily rejected" its plan for key aspects of operating a giant dam the East African nation is building on the Nile, while dismissing Ethiopia's own proposal as "unfair and inequitable". The comments in a note circulated to diplomats last week show the gap between the... →

Photo by Reuters
The Nile river in Egypt

Ghana power producers say plan to save costs carries hefty bill

By: Bloomberg 16th September 2019 Ghana’s plans to stop paying for power that it doesn’t consume may cost the country as much as $2-billion in upfront claims. Private operators will not accept Finance Minister Ken Ofori-Atta’s proposal to renegotiate agreements and will demand the full payment of their contracts’ termination... →

Uganda seeks $3.5bn in private money for power transmission

By: Bloomberg 10th September 2019 Uganda is seeking $3.5-billion in private investment to expand its power-transmission network in attempt to curb spending without slowing its economic growth. Liberalizing transmission will provide additional resources needed to transmit power from new generation projects including the 600 MW... →

Uganda rejects planned power plant at Murchison Falls

By: Reuters 28th August 2019 Uganda said on Wednesday that due to the importance of its famed Murchison Falls as a lucrative tourism attraction it had rejected a hydropower project proposed by South Africa's Bonang Power and Energy. The falls lend their name to a 3 900 km2 national park, one of Uganda's biggest, where... →

Zambia mulls a Congo canal. Experts say don’t even try it

By: Bloomberg 23rd August 2019 Drought-riven Zambia plans to build canals from the Congo river in its northern neighbor to supply water and electricity. It will never work, say experts. Water levels have plunged for the second time in three years in the Kariba dam, which feeds off the Zambezi river and provides both Zambia and... →

Power-starved Zimbabwe, Zambia face further drought-induced dark

By: Bloomberg 6th August 2019 The Kariba dam that straddles Zambia and Zimbabwe, the world’s biggest man-made reservoir, is emptying fast, sparking fears the countries may have to cut hydropower production there completely. For the two southern African nations already suffering daily blackouts and growing economic pressures... →

Three Gorges has nothing on China-backed dam to power Africa

By: Bloomberg 6th August 2019 A dream of building the world’s biggest hydroelectric project in the heart of Africa may be inching closer to reality. For decades, plans have been made and discarded to construct a series of hydroelectric power stations on the world’s second-longest river that would generate almost twice the... →

Respected head of IPP Office, Breytenbach, asked to leave post

By: Terence Creamer 22nd July 2019 The respected head of South Africa’s Independent Power Producer (IPP) Office, Karen Breytenbach, has confirmed to Engineering News Online that she has been asked to vacate her position by the Department of Energy (DOE) and the Development Bank of Southern Africa (DBSA). News of her departure was... →

Photo by Creamer Media's Dylan Slater
Karen Breytenbach

ResponsAbility teams up with Southern African hydropower project developer

By: Simone Liedtke 4th July 2019 A responsAbility-managed energy holding company has acquired a 26% interest in Renewable Energy Holdings (REH), the owner and operator of run-of-river hydropower projects in Southern Africa. →

Zambia, Zimbabwe to start building Batoka power plant next year

By: Reuters 2nd July 2019 Zambia and Zimbabwe will start building the 2 400 MW Batoka Gorge hydropower plant next year, a company jointly owned by the two governments said on Tuesday. The Batoka project involves construction of a dam, powerhouses, roads, transmission infrastructure and houses in both Zambia and Zimbabwe,... →

Conco wins eSwatini solar power project

By: Reuters 28th June 2019 South Africa's Consolidated Infrastructure Group (Conco) has won a $16-million contract to build a 10 MW solar project, in eSwatini, the firm said late on Thursday. The kingdom, formerly known as Swaziland, imports 80% of its electricity from South Africa's troubled utility Eskom but is looking... →

Collaboration ensures reliable energy solutions for water pumpstations

By: Khutso Maphatsoe 28th June 2019 With pumpstations requiring prime power from the grid or reliable back-up power to ensure continuous water flow, power solutions manufacturer Himoinsa works closely with water contractors and consultants to deliver the best solution for a pumpstation. “Whether it’s prime or continuous running, we... →

FORWARD THINKING Himoinsa is investing in research and development, and has launched several products that will effectively integrate with hybrid power solutions

Zambia directs State power firm to take cost-cutting measures

By: Reuters 27th June 2019 Zambia's Zesco should freeze staff hiring, merge some of its departments and take other steps to cut costs and make the State power utility more efficient, a government body said. The government said in November it had started implementing measures to transform Zesco, which does not have enough... →

Wild weather is endangering world's oldest form of clean power

By: Bloomberg 24th June 2019 The Kariba Dam has towered over one of Africa’s mightiest rivers for 60 years, forming the world’s largest reservoir and providing reliable electricity to Zambia and Zimbabwe. But as drought grips the region, flow on the Zambezi river has dwindled to a third of what it was a year ago. Last month,... →

GE wins bid to build $4bn Zambia-Zimbabwe hydropower plant

By: Bloomberg 21st June 2019 Zimbabwe and Zambia chose General Electric (GE) and Power Construction Corporation of China to build a $4-billion hydropower project straddling their border, Zimbabwean President Emmerson Mnangagwa said. The 2 400 MW Batoka Gorge plant has been planned for years by the two southern African... →

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