NERC Wants Pre-paid Meters for Urban Customers
Onyinye Ubanagu
08.30.2007
Lagos
The Nigerian Electricity Regulatory Commission (NERC) has told the power distribution companies in the country to connect their customers in the urban centres to pre-paid meters. NERC’s Commissioner for Government and Consumer Affairs, Mrs. Grace Eyoma, said this in an interview on Wednesday as she explained that the use of pre-paid meter was in the best interest of both the distribution companies and their customers. She explained that “the pre-paid meters would save the consumers the harrowing experience of crazy bills and mass-disconnections by the utility companies. "It would also assist the consumers to efficiently manage their consumption patterns and conserve energy," she said."There is plan to roll out these meters, especially in the urban centres. It will allow the operators have enough money to do their business and the banks will find it easier to do business with them. "They will be able to get banks support because they can show them the cash flow. I think it is a much better arrangement and nobody will feel cheated that way."
She said the use of pre-paid meters would soon gain wider acceptability when she made reference to the success rate of pre-paid billing system in the telecommunication industry. Only last month, the commission told the distribution companies to sparingly use mass-disconnections of electricity consumers as a strategy to collect unpaid electricity bills.
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Africa. Show all posts
Thursday, August 30, 2007
Tuesday, August 28, 2007
Lighting up Africa: Why today's residents are still making do with wax and wicks
28 August 2007
The Independent (UK)
When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb he vowed that electricity would be so cheap that only the rich would keep burning candles. Try telling that to today's residents of Africa, still making do with wax and wicks some 130 years later. The Dark Continent nickname may have been coined by Edison's contemporary explorers, but in one respect the moniker is still accurate, as a quick glance at a night satellite photograph of the globe proves. While the lights of Europe and America twinkle brightly, Africa is swathed in a cloak of blackness.
In Sierra Leone, the UN war crimes court is praised as much for lighting up one area of the capital Freetown, as for its justice. In the dilapidated Guinean capital, Conakry, young men flock to the airport of an evening, perched on bollards to cram in after-dark exam revision in the one place with constant lighting. And in the desert expanses of eastern Chad, families gather together for a meal by moonlight.
Even in Africa's most cosmopolitan cities - Johannesburg, Nairobi and Dakar - where the electricity grid is well-established, power cuts are a common aggravation, with neighbourhoods suddenly plunged into darkness. To counteract this, the clatter of back-up generators has become a familiar soundtrack to life in the wealthier suburbs.
Development experts have long fretted about the knock-on effect that power shortages have on the continent's ability to haul itself out of poverty. Put in simple human terms, an estimated half a billion people do not have any electricity whatsoever.
"There is not enough time in the day to extend the electricity grid," says Russell Sturm, an energy expert for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank. "We need a more immediate solution." It is with a view to plugging the gap that the World Bank is set to unveil its Lighting Africa initiative. The target is to get 250 million Africans supplied with clean-energy lighting by 2030.
Many of the continent's poorest people are dependent on kerosene lamps or candles, and typically spend at least a 10th of their income on lighting their shacks. The lamps often kick out more smoke than light, and there are frequent stories of huts going up in flames as they get knocked over. People with a bit of extra cash may invest in a small diesel generator, but the extra illumination and the reduced danger does not quite compensate for the noise and the polluting fumes.
The future, according to the World Bank, is LED lighting. In the UK, LEDs (light emitting diodes) are more commonly thought of as the tiny red and blue dots of light on household remote control units, but the new generation of LEDs give out useable white light. And these devices could help switch on the lights in Africa, in the same way that mobile phones have changed the continent.
"When the cellphone arrived, suddenly it made no sense to wire countries up to the landline network," says Mr Sturm. "I think you can have the same impact with LED lighting." LEDs are very efficient, in that they use a very small amount of power (typically one watt) but produce enough light to read by. They can also be recharged with mechanically-operated chargers such as hand cranks or pedal power, which makes them particularly suitable for African villages far from the grid.
Energy experts say that with the slow uptake of electrification,LEDs are good for the short term. "There's definitely room for targeted rural initiatives. They are starting from such a low base. In rural areas, we are talking about a 2 per cent access rate," explains Anton Eberhard, a former electricity regulator and professor at the University of Cape Town.
The World Bank and its IFC private investment arm has a pot of $12m (£6m), which will serve primarily as seed money to grow the ideas of interested businessmen and entrepreneurs. "The technology is already out there ... but what the World Bank can do is use its muscle to drum up interest and do this on a very large scale," says Walt Patterson, author of the recently-published Keeping The Lights On and a fellow at London's Chatham House.
Lighting Africa officially launches on 4 September, when organisers will unveil a competition for the design and delivery of low-cost, green lighting products for low-income consumers in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 350 companies have already expressed an interest - from Africa-based small businesses to multinationals like Philips.
Perhaps key to the appeal, is the World Bank calculation that the so-called "energy poor" in Africa spend about $17bn each year on fuel-based lighting. "It's a sleeping giant from a market perspective," says the IFC's Mr Sturm. "The poor, even the poorest of the poor, can be a profitable market."
Again, the parallels are drawn with mobile phones. In Kenya, for example, mobiles rocketed from almost zero to nearly six million users in the decade since the technology was introduced. It will be in the first wave of countries that Lighting Africa will target, along with Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, before the project is rolled out more widely.
"We're working with manufacturers to bring down the costs of LED lighting ... and then the real challenge is on marketing and finding the avenues to distribute these products," says Vijay Iyer, an energy specialist at the World Bank.
For the fisherman plying the waters of Lake Victoria, that day cannot come soon enough. The men work at night, using lights to attract shoals of fish to the surface before trapping them in nets. Currently they use kerosene lamps, spending $1,000 a year on fuel. But with an LED light, they could eliminate that expense and pocket more cash to feed their families and send their children to school. And those children could study at night, improving their grades and, so some development experts believe, help raise the educational standards.
The other major benefit of better lighting would be better security. In some of the continent's crime-ridden slums, women cannot walk at night for fear of being attacked and some stallholders refuse to stay open after dusk for fear of being robbed. With fewer shadows for criminals to lurk in, the streets could become safer. While the Lighting Africa initiative could make a real, immediate difference to the lives of many, experts including Professor Eberhard warn that it should not distract attention from the wider problem of generating more electricity for the continent.
"In my view, probably the most critical challenge is getting power to businesses so they can power the economy," he says. Take Nigeria. Despite being the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, power is such a problem that the National Electric Production Authority (Nepa) is known as Never-Ever Power Always. Thirty years ago, Nigeria had 79 generating stations, now only around 15 are still working.
The frequent power cuts - or "lights out" as they are called locally - mean companies have to invest in generators. That electricity costs around 10 times that of the grid. It is a burden on small businesses, not to mention a turn-off for outside investors. The World Bank estimates that lack of reliable power is clipping more than 2 per cent off the annual growth rates of the worst-hit African countries.
There are moves afoot to crank up the power. The idea of bio-fuels is catching on, with production experiments taking place in many countries. South Africa has started constructing the continent's first ethanol plant, and the Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has created a new ministry devoted to biofuels and renewable energy. It is early days, however, and with solar power still too costly to be able to harness the power of African sun, it is hydropower that is seeing the most investment - although critics worry about the environmental impact and the fact that the rainfall is too variable.
In Uganda, however, the government has finally given the green light for a 30m-high dam on the Nile just below the favourite white-water rafting hangout of Bujagali Falls. An international consortium is pumping £400m into the hydropower project, the biggest-ever foreign investment in east Africa. Similar dams are planned for the Niger and Volta rivers.
Without doubt, the most powerful weapon in Africa's electricity arsenal is the river Congo, which sends 42.5 million litres of water pouring into the Atlantic every second - a flow second only to the Amazon. The idea of a huge power plant on this river has been described by some as a "Marshall plan for Africa". The 40,000 megawatts of potential electricity from the so-called Grand Inga, would be more than twice the projected capacity of the Three Gorges Dam in China, and could literally light up the continent. But it comes with a giant price tag - $40bn compared to the $12bn spent on infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa since 1985. And on top of that the Democratic Republic of Congo is still recovering from a civil war, and is a long way from shaking off its reputation as "corruption central". All in all, it looks like it could be some time before the African joke - "What did we do before we used candles? We had electricity" - becomes obsolete.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2900990.ece
28 August 2007
The Independent (UK)
When Thomas Edison invented the light bulb he vowed that electricity would be so cheap that only the rich would keep burning candles. Try telling that to today's residents of Africa, still making do with wax and wicks some 130 years later. The Dark Continent nickname may have been coined by Edison's contemporary explorers, but in one respect the moniker is still accurate, as a quick glance at a night satellite photograph of the globe proves. While the lights of Europe and America twinkle brightly, Africa is swathed in a cloak of blackness.
In Sierra Leone, the UN war crimes court is praised as much for lighting up one area of the capital Freetown, as for its justice. In the dilapidated Guinean capital, Conakry, young men flock to the airport of an evening, perched on bollards to cram in after-dark exam revision in the one place with constant lighting. And in the desert expanses of eastern Chad, families gather together for a meal by moonlight.
Even in Africa's most cosmopolitan cities - Johannesburg, Nairobi and Dakar - where the electricity grid is well-established, power cuts are a common aggravation, with neighbourhoods suddenly plunged into darkness. To counteract this, the clatter of back-up generators has become a familiar soundtrack to life in the wealthier suburbs.
Development experts have long fretted about the knock-on effect that power shortages have on the continent's ability to haul itself out of poverty. Put in simple human terms, an estimated half a billion people do not have any electricity whatsoever.
"There is not enough time in the day to extend the electricity grid," says Russell Sturm, an energy expert for the International Finance Corporation (IFC), the private sector investment arm of the World Bank. "We need a more immediate solution." It is with a view to plugging the gap that the World Bank is set to unveil its Lighting Africa initiative. The target is to get 250 million Africans supplied with clean-energy lighting by 2030.
Many of the continent's poorest people are dependent on kerosene lamps or candles, and typically spend at least a 10th of their income on lighting their shacks. The lamps often kick out more smoke than light, and there are frequent stories of huts going up in flames as they get knocked over. People with a bit of extra cash may invest in a small diesel generator, but the extra illumination and the reduced danger does not quite compensate for the noise and the polluting fumes.
The future, according to the World Bank, is LED lighting. In the UK, LEDs (light emitting diodes) are more commonly thought of as the tiny red and blue dots of light on household remote control units, but the new generation of LEDs give out useable white light. And these devices could help switch on the lights in Africa, in the same way that mobile phones have changed the continent.
"When the cellphone arrived, suddenly it made no sense to wire countries up to the landline network," says Mr Sturm. "I think you can have the same impact with LED lighting." LEDs are very efficient, in that they use a very small amount of power (typically one watt) but produce enough light to read by. They can also be recharged with mechanically-operated chargers such as hand cranks or pedal power, which makes them particularly suitable for African villages far from the grid.
Energy experts say that with the slow uptake of electrification,LEDs are good for the short term. "There's definitely room for targeted rural initiatives. They are starting from such a low base. In rural areas, we are talking about a 2 per cent access rate," explains Anton Eberhard, a former electricity regulator and professor at the University of Cape Town.
The World Bank and its IFC private investment arm has a pot of $12m (£6m), which will serve primarily as seed money to grow the ideas of interested businessmen and entrepreneurs. "The technology is already out there ... but what the World Bank can do is use its muscle to drum up interest and do this on a very large scale," says Walt Patterson, author of the recently-published Keeping The Lights On and a fellow at London's Chatham House.
Lighting Africa officially launches on 4 September, when organisers will unveil a competition for the design and delivery of low-cost, green lighting products for low-income consumers in sub-Saharan Africa. More than 350 companies have already expressed an interest - from Africa-based small businesses to multinationals like Philips.
Perhaps key to the appeal, is the World Bank calculation that the so-called "energy poor" in Africa spend about $17bn each year on fuel-based lighting. "It's a sleeping giant from a market perspective," says the IFC's Mr Sturm. "The poor, even the poorest of the poor, can be a profitable market."
Again, the parallels are drawn with mobile phones. In Kenya, for example, mobiles rocketed from almost zero to nearly six million users in the decade since the technology was introduced. It will be in the first wave of countries that Lighting Africa will target, along with Ghana, Tanzania and Zambia, before the project is rolled out more widely.
"We're working with manufacturers to bring down the costs of LED lighting ... and then the real challenge is on marketing and finding the avenues to distribute these products," says Vijay Iyer, an energy specialist at the World Bank.
For the fisherman plying the waters of Lake Victoria, that day cannot come soon enough. The men work at night, using lights to attract shoals of fish to the surface before trapping them in nets. Currently they use kerosene lamps, spending $1,000 a year on fuel. But with an LED light, they could eliminate that expense and pocket more cash to feed their families and send their children to school. And those children could study at night, improving their grades and, so some development experts believe, help raise the educational standards.
The other major benefit of better lighting would be better security. In some of the continent's crime-ridden slums, women cannot walk at night for fear of being attacked and some stallholders refuse to stay open after dusk for fear of being robbed. With fewer shadows for criminals to lurk in, the streets could become safer. While the Lighting Africa initiative could make a real, immediate difference to the lives of many, experts including Professor Eberhard warn that it should not distract attention from the wider problem of generating more electricity for the continent.
"In my view, probably the most critical challenge is getting power to businesses so they can power the economy," he says. Take Nigeria. Despite being the world's eighth-largest oil exporter, power is such a problem that the National Electric Production Authority (Nepa) is known as Never-Ever Power Always. Thirty years ago, Nigeria had 79 generating stations, now only around 15 are still working.
The frequent power cuts - or "lights out" as they are called locally - mean companies have to invest in generators. That electricity costs around 10 times that of the grid. It is a burden on small businesses, not to mention a turn-off for outside investors. The World Bank estimates that lack of reliable power is clipping more than 2 per cent off the annual growth rates of the worst-hit African countries.
There are moves afoot to crank up the power. The idea of bio-fuels is catching on, with production experiments taking place in many countries. South Africa has started constructing the continent's first ethanol plant, and the Senegalese President Abdoulaye Wade has created a new ministry devoted to biofuels and renewable energy. It is early days, however, and with solar power still too costly to be able to harness the power of African sun, it is hydropower that is seeing the most investment - although critics worry about the environmental impact and the fact that the rainfall is too variable.
In Uganda, however, the government has finally given the green light for a 30m-high dam on the Nile just below the favourite white-water rafting hangout of Bujagali Falls. An international consortium is pumping £400m into the hydropower project, the biggest-ever foreign investment in east Africa. Similar dams are planned for the Niger and Volta rivers.
Without doubt, the most powerful weapon in Africa's electricity arsenal is the river Congo, which sends 42.5 million litres of water pouring into the Atlantic every second - a flow second only to the Amazon. The idea of a huge power plant on this river has been described by some as a "Marshall plan for Africa". The 40,000 megawatts of potential electricity from the so-called Grand Inga, would be more than twice the projected capacity of the Three Gorges Dam in China, and could literally light up the continent. But it comes with a giant price tag - $40bn compared to the $12bn spent on infrastructure in sub-Saharan Africa since 1985. And on top of that the Democratic Republic of Congo is still recovering from a civil war, and is a long way from shaking off its reputation as "corruption central". All in all, it looks like it could be some time before the African joke - "What did we do before we used candles? We had electricity" - becomes obsolete.
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/africa/article2900990.ece
Thursday, August 23, 2007
Nigeria: The Country's Electricity Dilemma
AllAfrica.com
OPINION
21 August 2007
Uduma Okeh
Lagos
Much has been said and written over the years by renowned energy professionals, experts and analysts about the degenerated energy supply in Nigeria, with prescriptions of strategies for improving and stabilising the industry. Past governments also implemented diverse policy programmes in the energy sector based on their respective measures of understanding of the role of energy as an essential input for the socio-economic empowerment of the citizens.
The recurrent devastating economic and environmental impact of power black-outs, both planned and un-planned, underlines a need for urgent implementation of the long-term least cost generation expansion framework and proper maintenance of transmission and distribution networks to ensure enhanced energy supply and reliability in Nigeria.
The country is plagued with perennial energy crisis deriving from declining electricity generation from the national power hegemony called the Power Holdings Company of Nigeria Plc (PHCN). This reflects the poor maintenance culture inherent in the country right from Independence and the inefficiency and corruption of the public utility provider. With or without privatisation, the PHCN clearly cannot meet Nigeria's surging energy demands. PHCN cannot give out what it does not have.
Right from inception, Nigeria's electricity policy has been urban-centric. Rural areas, where the greater percentage of the country's population is found, are always relegated to the background and excluded in our desultory electrification policy. Every country's economic and social growth depends on the substratum of its political leadership. The World Conventional Energy Supply, 2004, showed Africa's highest supply in descending order of magnitude as follows: South Africa has 30,020MW capacity; Egypt has 14,250MW capacity; Algeria has 6,188MW capacity; Libya has 4,710 MW capacity; Nigeria has 3,960MW capacity and Morocco has 3,592MW capacity etc.
So, South Africa's total energy supply is 10 times more than Nigeria's own. The 44.3 million members of South Africa's population have electricity 10 times more than over 140 million Nigerians. Egypt, which is second with 14,250MW capacity is 3.59 or, approximately 4 times higher than Nigeria's conventional energy output. Egypt with a population of 77.5 million people uses electricity 4 times more than over 140 million Nigeria's population.
The total global electric power supply is 3,400,000MW capacity and developing countries with 80% of world's population have 1,500,000MW capacity. Advanced countries with 20% of world's population paradoxically have electricity 3 times more than the developing countries' 80% population. Out of 1,500,000MW capacity shared amongst the developing countries, Nigeria, with the largest population in Africa, coupled with its enormous natural resources, does not have even up to 5,000MW capacity.
It is essential that the Federal Government takes a long-term view to energy production and think about the next 50 to 100-year time horizon, rather than the next political dispensation and which political party produces the President. Only long-term approach to energy supply and integration of RE resources backed with firm political leadership will rid Nigeria of its age-long electricity dilemma.
It is believed that government has an obligation to the Nigerian citizens for the provision of products and services that private market seems reluctant to provide at a competitive price but which are required to ensure the polity's health welfare, safety, long-term economic stability and environmental conservation, RE technologies competently meet these criteria.
Government needs to remember that it is the citizens who bear the costs for the externalities associated with fossil fuel use in many ways, including healthcare and environment. It is appropriate for government to recognise and swiftly act upon the external social costs of its energy choices. At the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles, the G8 recognised that one important option to improve global energy security and mitigate global warming, is to increase electricity production from RE. Renewable energy or Variable Output Technologies (VOTs) are all of particular relevance to this required approach, which aims to provide decentralisation policy recommendations.
Government should have balanced energy reform by focusing on the development and promotion of RE through R&D programmes and awareness creation. What is required is an energy reform that embraces informed energy diversification framework policy aimed at boosting the deployment of RE to supplement energy supply from the conventional resources in Nigeria.
There is need for this administration to appreciate and apply variable output technologies in pursuance of environmental sustainability agenda in conformity with the obligations of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) which Nigeria accepted as a Party to the Kyoto Protocol.
Government should evolve the introduction of realistic regulatory mechanisms to encourage private sectors and rural communities participation in RE development through small power purchase tariffs aimed at supporting small power producers schemes.
There should also be support for the development of micro-hydro power plants, wind power, autonomous and hybrid solar systems in the rural areas to empower the rural dwellers economically. This regime is required to provide subsidies to build RE market volume on the premise that costs will decline as volume increases due to the economies of scale and learning.
In Nigeria, our government appears unwilling to have a balanced energy reform which would allow for the adoption of portfolio standard for RE to supply electricity and water and promote agriculture in the rural areas. In the United States of America (USA), RE forms 11.5% of its total electricity generation capacity. RE also accounts for 32% of India's total electricity supply. In China and Japan they represent 21% and 20% of total electricity capacity respectively. These are the only clear solutions to Nigeria's electricity dilemma.
- Okeh, Executive Director of Green Earth Preservation Charter (GEPC), wrote in from Lagos
AllAfrica.com
OPINION
21 August 2007
Uduma Okeh
Lagos
Much has been said and written over the years by renowned energy professionals, experts and analysts about the degenerated energy supply in Nigeria, with prescriptions of strategies for improving and stabilising the industry. Past governments also implemented diverse policy programmes in the energy sector based on their respective measures of understanding of the role of energy as an essential input for the socio-economic empowerment of the citizens.
The recurrent devastating economic and environmental impact of power black-outs, both planned and un-planned, underlines a need for urgent implementation of the long-term least cost generation expansion framework and proper maintenance of transmission and distribution networks to ensure enhanced energy supply and reliability in Nigeria.
The country is plagued with perennial energy crisis deriving from declining electricity generation from the national power hegemony called the Power Holdings Company of Nigeria Plc (PHCN). This reflects the poor maintenance culture inherent in the country right from Independence and the inefficiency and corruption of the public utility provider. With or without privatisation, the PHCN clearly cannot meet Nigeria's surging energy demands. PHCN cannot give out what it does not have.
Right from inception, Nigeria's electricity policy has been urban-centric. Rural areas, where the greater percentage of the country's population is found, are always relegated to the background and excluded in our desultory electrification policy. Every country's economic and social growth depends on the substratum of its political leadership. The World Conventional Energy Supply, 2004, showed Africa's highest supply in descending order of magnitude as follows: South Africa has 30,020MW capacity; Egypt has 14,250MW capacity; Algeria has 6,188MW capacity; Libya has 4,710 MW capacity; Nigeria has 3,960MW capacity and Morocco has 3,592MW capacity etc.
So, South Africa's total energy supply is 10 times more than Nigeria's own. The 44.3 million members of South Africa's population have electricity 10 times more than over 140 million Nigerians. Egypt, which is second with 14,250MW capacity is 3.59 or, approximately 4 times higher than Nigeria's conventional energy output. Egypt with a population of 77.5 million people uses electricity 4 times more than over 140 million Nigeria's population.
The total global electric power supply is 3,400,000MW capacity and developing countries with 80% of world's population have 1,500,000MW capacity. Advanced countries with 20% of world's population paradoxically have electricity 3 times more than the developing countries' 80% population. Out of 1,500,000MW capacity shared amongst the developing countries, Nigeria, with the largest population in Africa, coupled with its enormous natural resources, does not have even up to 5,000MW capacity.
It is essential that the Federal Government takes a long-term view to energy production and think about the next 50 to 100-year time horizon, rather than the next political dispensation and which political party produces the President. Only long-term approach to energy supply and integration of RE resources backed with firm political leadership will rid Nigeria of its age-long electricity dilemma.
It is believed that government has an obligation to the Nigerian citizens for the provision of products and services that private market seems reluctant to provide at a competitive price but which are required to ensure the polity's health welfare, safety, long-term economic stability and environmental conservation, RE technologies competently meet these criteria.
Government needs to remember that it is the citizens who bear the costs for the externalities associated with fossil fuel use in many ways, including healthcare and environment. It is appropriate for government to recognise and swiftly act upon the external social costs of its energy choices. At the 2005 G8 Summit in Gleneagles, the G8 recognised that one important option to improve global energy security and mitigate global warming, is to increase electricity production from RE. Renewable energy or Variable Output Technologies (VOTs) are all of particular relevance to this required approach, which aims to provide decentralisation policy recommendations.
Government should have balanced energy reform by focusing on the development and promotion of RE through R&D programmes and awareness creation. What is required is an energy reform that embraces informed energy diversification framework policy aimed at boosting the deployment of RE to supplement energy supply from the conventional resources in Nigeria.
There is need for this administration to appreciate and apply variable output technologies in pursuance of environmental sustainability agenda in conformity with the obligations of the Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) which Nigeria accepted as a Party to the Kyoto Protocol.
Government should evolve the introduction of realistic regulatory mechanisms to encourage private sectors and rural communities participation in RE development through small power purchase tariffs aimed at supporting small power producers schemes.
There should also be support for the development of micro-hydro power plants, wind power, autonomous and hybrid solar systems in the rural areas to empower the rural dwellers economically. This regime is required to provide subsidies to build RE market volume on the premise that costs will decline as volume increases due to the economies of scale and learning.
In Nigeria, our government appears unwilling to have a balanced energy reform which would allow for the adoption of portfolio standard for RE to supply electricity and water and promote agriculture in the rural areas. In the United States of America (USA), RE forms 11.5% of its total electricity generation capacity. RE also accounts for 32% of India's total electricity supply. In China and Japan they represent 21% and 20% of total electricity capacity respectively. These are the only clear solutions to Nigeria's electricity dilemma.
- Okeh, Executive Director of Green Earth Preservation Charter (GEPC), wrote in from Lagos
Tuesday, August 21, 2007
Uganda: Kampala's Garbage Could Solve Household Power Shortage
AllAfrica.com
(Kampala)
15 August John Kasozi
THEY have gone everywhere, knocked at the doors of every office that matters. Finally, they have written three letters to see the President. But still in vain. Sesam Energetics 1, a Kampala-based private company in conjunction with Taylor Biomass Energy USA, wants to generate 33 megawatts (MW) from urban biodegradable waste, under the Taylor Biomass Energy project. But their effort to secure the standardised power purchase agreement (PPA) on pricing with the President, has come to a standstill.
According to the Government's Renewable Energy Policy, 2006 looks at biomass-fired cogeneration, wind, peat, geothermal and solar as small hydropower plants that generate less than 20MW that do not warrant PPA.
Dr. Noah Maalanti, Sesam's chief executive officer says they are to generate a minimum of 33MW above the small-scale power projects. "This is why we are looking at the presidential mediation to waive the project from complete subjection to the current Renewable Energy Policy. The policy has rigidly stipulated feed-in-tariffs, regardless of the technology implemented and socio-economic benefits generated by the project," he explains.
Godfrey Ndawula, the assistant commissioner for new and renewable source of energy in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, says the policy states that the significance of this type of PPA is that it makes the business predictable by removing market uncertainty, fastens negotiations with the developer and dramatically cuts down the transaction costs.
He adds that the ministry powers stop on the gazetted 20MW. "Above that amount is left to the Parliament and the President to decide." Sesam falls within standardised feed-in-tariff, that is a rate at which the transmission company buys electricity from the power-generating company. The feed-in-tariff is part of the standardised PPA. The tariff should be able to translate into cash revenue that will not require the investor to resort to a capital subsidy according to the policy.
Sam Julius Lukwago, Sesam's executive director, says they would like to negotiate a special rate that would make them collect garbage at no cost. "We want our power purchased at between $90-$120 per megawatt if our operations are to be sustainable, but this is still subject to negotiation," he said. Lukwago said because they are going to generate more than 20MW, they chose to see the President since "taking it to Parliament is a long process."
He says there are invaluable benefits for Uganda. "With presidential support to help conclude the long-term PPA with Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) and Waste Management Contract (WMC) with Kampala City Council (KCC), could fish Uganda out of many problems."
"We are also looking at other waivers and support that may arise in the process of project execution. If all had been cleared last year, the 33MW would be enjoyed during the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in November. The energy crisis would be nearing its end," says Lukwago.
Kiteezi landfill is nearing the end of its lifespan. It has less than one-and-a-half years to reach its full capacity according to the KCC Solid Waste Management Strategy, October 2006 Report.
Projections made for the next 10 years indicate that Kampala population figures would be over four million. The population is increasing at 3.7% per annum. At that time, 60,000 metric tonnes of waste will be generated monthly from the current 42,000 metric tones, meaning a daily generation of over 1,400.
The report further shows that the rate of daily waste collections is at 35%. This implies that 65% is not currently collected. The refuse composition stands at 10.7% paper and board, glass 1.8%, metal 0.4%, plastic 11.8%, organics 74%, textiles 0.9%, construction and special care waste at 0.4%.
The waste stream for metal has decreased as a result of establishment of several steel rolling mills using scrap as a major input. The organic waste stream is still the largest and is bound to remain so for a long time. Sesam did studies to see the how Kiteezi landfill could be useful to Ugandans in energy generation, comprising the biggest percentage of biodegradable wastes.
The studies indicate that the energy project shall be able to generate a minimum of 33MW of electricity enough for over 30,000 households daily, from a minimum waste feed stock of 710 metric tonnes.
Maalanti says the project could be upgraded to 70MW depending on the efficiency of the waste collection system in place. "It is estimated that Uganda will have a peak demand between 411MW and 649MW by 2010. The power generation of 317MW is inadequate."
In addition, the project has a potential to provide several other unparalleled benefits to the country. These include replacements for natural gas and petroleum-based products with the potential to offset millions of barrels of imported oil. Wastes will be recycled and reduce dependence on landfills. There will be reduction in deforestation due to over-dependence on charcoal and firewood for fuel.
There will be reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that come from the landfill. The project is capable of generating close to $40 million (sh68b) in carbon credits to the country. Thus, it is to reduce losses caused by global warming on annual harvests like coffee.
Uganda is signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the Kyoto Protocol. Uganda has already benefited from the sale of carbon credits at the Nyagak mini-hydro project $4m (sh48m) under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto protocol.
This is especially possible because carbon credits from methane are quite attractive, yet this is the gas that the project eliminates from the atmosphere. The gasification process to be utilised uses a true heat transference process and therefore produces next to no greenhouse gaseous emissions.
On top of that, over 1,500 permanent jobs will be created with an annual payroll of approximately sh65.8m. The annual government savings on landfill management are estimated sh1.7b. They would cause a reduction in health hazards related to poor solid waste disposal.
Sesam has already secured the technology through a reputable partner in the US, Taylor Biomass Energy, with whom a memorandum of understanding has been signed.
"Taylor is one of the major companies contacted to sort garbage of 500,000 metric tonnes from the World Trade Centre for forensic investigation," says Maalanti. He clarified that Taylor Proprietary Gasification Technology for generation of electricity applies a true heat transference process and therefore produces next to zero greenhouse gas emissions. "This is what differentiates the project from all the other technologies on the globe."
According to the memorandum of understanding, Sesam is to contribute land for a waste processing plant, long-term waste management contract and power purchase agreement and finance 25% project cost. Taylor has guaranteed technology and performance plus sourcing of 75% of the cost. On confirmation of their commitment, Taylor technocrats paid a visit to Uganda in March 2007. Sesam has obtained a lease for 100 acres of private mailo land in Lubya from the Buganda government, near the Kampala Northern Bypass high voltage wires and Namugoona sub-station.
An important basic feature of the overall system's environmental performance is that Taylor handles as a "solid" all those materials that are not appropriate for the energy process.
The processing of bulky waste not only reduces the volume of waste to be sent to a landfill, but also maximises the efficiency of transportation to the landfill and perhaps most importantly, minimises the amount of carbon converted to methane, which has 21-23 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
50% of biomass carbon is estimated to become methane when disposed of in a landfill.
Methane gas collection is often less than 40% of the total landfill gas emitted over a landfill's life. 75% of methane in the atmosphere comes from landfills. The garbage evaluation report for Kampala's central business district has established a collection cost of sh11,000 per tonne of waste needed. This means that KCC requires a monthly sum of sh462m to implement 100% refuse collection. The report shows that the district currently needs 800 skips and only 529 are in place and most of them are in a deplorable state. KCC has 31 very old refuse trucks. Each delivers a maximum of five tonnes per day.
KCC contracted the management of the Kiteezi Landfill to DOTT Services at a cost of sh9,600 per tonne. Considering that an average of 500 tonnes are handled daily, the average cost of managing the landfill is sh4.8m. Currently, the Government spends close to $1m (sh1.6b) per year to manage about 40% collected waste. The project is able to cut this cost by over 85% in the first five years of operation and could eliminate this cost after expansion of the gasifiers to consume 100% waste generated in the city. Only about 3% of the processed waste is eventually taken to the landfill.
AllAfrica.com
(Kampala)
15 August John Kasozi
THEY have gone everywhere, knocked at the doors of every office that matters. Finally, they have written three letters to see the President. But still in vain. Sesam Energetics 1, a Kampala-based private company in conjunction with Taylor Biomass Energy USA, wants to generate 33 megawatts (MW) from urban biodegradable waste, under the Taylor Biomass Energy project. But their effort to secure the standardised power purchase agreement (PPA) on pricing with the President, has come to a standstill.
According to the Government's Renewable Energy Policy, 2006 looks at biomass-fired cogeneration, wind, peat, geothermal and solar as small hydropower plants that generate less than 20MW that do not warrant PPA.
Dr. Noah Maalanti, Sesam's chief executive officer says they are to generate a minimum of 33MW above the small-scale power projects. "This is why we are looking at the presidential mediation to waive the project from complete subjection to the current Renewable Energy Policy. The policy has rigidly stipulated feed-in-tariffs, regardless of the technology implemented and socio-economic benefits generated by the project," he explains.
Godfrey Ndawula, the assistant commissioner for new and renewable source of energy in the Ministry of Energy and Mineral Development, says the policy states that the significance of this type of PPA is that it makes the business predictable by removing market uncertainty, fastens negotiations with the developer and dramatically cuts down the transaction costs.
He adds that the ministry powers stop on the gazetted 20MW. "Above that amount is left to the Parliament and the President to decide." Sesam falls within standardised feed-in-tariff, that is a rate at which the transmission company buys electricity from the power-generating company. The feed-in-tariff is part of the standardised PPA. The tariff should be able to translate into cash revenue that will not require the investor to resort to a capital subsidy according to the policy.
Sam Julius Lukwago, Sesam's executive director, says they would like to negotiate a special rate that would make them collect garbage at no cost. "We want our power purchased at between $90-$120 per megawatt if our operations are to be sustainable, but this is still subject to negotiation," he said. Lukwago said because they are going to generate more than 20MW, they chose to see the President since "taking it to Parliament is a long process."
He says there are invaluable benefits for Uganda. "With presidential support to help conclude the long-term PPA with Uganda Electricity Transmission Company Limited (UETCL) and Waste Management Contract (WMC) with Kampala City Council (KCC), could fish Uganda out of many problems."
"We are also looking at other waivers and support that may arise in the process of project execution. If all had been cleared last year, the 33MW would be enjoyed during the Commonwealth Heads of Governments Meeting in November. The energy crisis would be nearing its end," says Lukwago.
Kiteezi landfill is nearing the end of its lifespan. It has less than one-and-a-half years to reach its full capacity according to the KCC Solid Waste Management Strategy, October 2006 Report.
Projections made for the next 10 years indicate that Kampala population figures would be over four million. The population is increasing at 3.7% per annum. At that time, 60,000 metric tonnes of waste will be generated monthly from the current 42,000 metric tones, meaning a daily generation of over 1,400.
The report further shows that the rate of daily waste collections is at 35%. This implies that 65% is not currently collected. The refuse composition stands at 10.7% paper and board, glass 1.8%, metal 0.4%, plastic 11.8%, organics 74%, textiles 0.9%, construction and special care waste at 0.4%.
The waste stream for metal has decreased as a result of establishment of several steel rolling mills using scrap as a major input. The organic waste stream is still the largest and is bound to remain so for a long time. Sesam did studies to see the how Kiteezi landfill could be useful to Ugandans in energy generation, comprising the biggest percentage of biodegradable wastes.
The studies indicate that the energy project shall be able to generate a minimum of 33MW of electricity enough for over 30,000 households daily, from a minimum waste feed stock of 710 metric tonnes.
Maalanti says the project could be upgraded to 70MW depending on the efficiency of the waste collection system in place. "It is estimated that Uganda will have a peak demand between 411MW and 649MW by 2010. The power generation of 317MW is inadequate."
In addition, the project has a potential to provide several other unparalleled benefits to the country. These include replacements for natural gas and petroleum-based products with the potential to offset millions of barrels of imported oil. Wastes will be recycled and reduce dependence on landfills. There will be reduction in deforestation due to over-dependence on charcoal and firewood for fuel.
There will be reduction of greenhouse gas emissions that come from the landfill. The project is capable of generating close to $40 million (sh68b) in carbon credits to the country. Thus, it is to reduce losses caused by global warming on annual harvests like coffee.
Uganda is signatory to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change the Kyoto Protocol. Uganda has already benefited from the sale of carbon credits at the Nyagak mini-hydro project $4m (sh48m) under the Clean Development Mechanism of the Kyoto protocol.
This is especially possible because carbon credits from methane are quite attractive, yet this is the gas that the project eliminates from the atmosphere. The gasification process to be utilised uses a true heat transference process and therefore produces next to no greenhouse gaseous emissions.
On top of that, over 1,500 permanent jobs will be created with an annual payroll of approximately sh65.8m. The annual government savings on landfill management are estimated sh1.7b. They would cause a reduction in health hazards related to poor solid waste disposal.
Sesam has already secured the technology through a reputable partner in the US, Taylor Biomass Energy, with whom a memorandum of understanding has been signed.
"Taylor is one of the major companies contacted to sort garbage of 500,000 metric tonnes from the World Trade Centre for forensic investigation," says Maalanti. He clarified that Taylor Proprietary Gasification Technology for generation of electricity applies a true heat transference process and therefore produces next to zero greenhouse gas emissions. "This is what differentiates the project from all the other technologies on the globe."
According to the memorandum of understanding, Sesam is to contribute land for a waste processing plant, long-term waste management contract and power purchase agreement and finance 25% project cost. Taylor has guaranteed technology and performance plus sourcing of 75% of the cost. On confirmation of their commitment, Taylor technocrats paid a visit to Uganda in March 2007. Sesam has obtained a lease for 100 acres of private mailo land in Lubya from the Buganda government, near the Kampala Northern Bypass high voltage wires and Namugoona sub-station.
An important basic feature of the overall system's environmental performance is that Taylor handles as a "solid" all those materials that are not appropriate for the energy process.
The processing of bulky waste not only reduces the volume of waste to be sent to a landfill, but also maximises the efficiency of transportation to the landfill and perhaps most importantly, minimises the amount of carbon converted to methane, which has 21-23 times the global warming potential of carbon dioxide.
50% of biomass carbon is estimated to become methane when disposed of in a landfill.
Methane gas collection is often less than 40% of the total landfill gas emitted over a landfill's life. 75% of methane in the atmosphere comes from landfills. The garbage evaluation report for Kampala's central business district has established a collection cost of sh11,000 per tonne of waste needed. This means that KCC requires a monthly sum of sh462m to implement 100% refuse collection. The report shows that the district currently needs 800 skips and only 529 are in place and most of them are in a deplorable state. KCC has 31 very old refuse trucks. Each delivers a maximum of five tonnes per day.
KCC contracted the management of the Kiteezi Landfill to DOTT Services at a cost of sh9,600 per tonne. Considering that an average of 500 tonnes are handled daily, the average cost of managing the landfill is sh4.8m. Currently, the Government spends close to $1m (sh1.6b) per year to manage about 40% collected waste. The project is able to cut this cost by over 85% in the first five years of operation and could eliminate this cost after expansion of the gasifiers to consume 100% waste generated in the city. Only about 3% of the processed waste is eventually taken to the landfill.
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