With faster, more innovative power generation and distribution, Africa could share infrastructure, knowledge and skills to take affordable, reliable and cleaner power across the continent.
Speaking at the opening of Power-Gen & DistribuTech Africa at the Sandton Convention Centre yesterday, pan-African power experts say transformation is taking place, but the pace of change was still too slow.
They urged closer collaboration and innovation to take power to the 600-million people in Africa who still had no access to electricity, as well as to support industrialisation across the continent.
The Minister of Public Enterprises, Lynne Brown, says that Africa remains the “dark continent”, calling on stakeholders to lay the groundwork for a future in which Africa’s infrastructure deficit was overcome and an “inclusive continental electricity sector”.
“Africa has a momentous task ahead in the spirit of progress, innovation partnership and integrated and continued advancement of our industry. One day, Africa could unite for a single super-grid that could be the envy of the world,” says Eskom’s new Interim Chairman, Zethembe Khoza.
“In Africa there is a need to balance affordability with reliability and environmental sustainability. We need to think big and act fast. At Eskom, we are currently undertaking the largest build programme in Africa. Our aspiration is to pursue a more diverse energy mix, with the objective of reducing the utility’s relative emissions and subsequently to reduce its absolute emissions.”
George Njenga, regional executive for steam power systems: sub-Sahara Africa at GE Power South Africa, calls for more creative financing and risk sharing to drive further investment in pan-African power infrastructure. New technologies and innovation is generation and distribution could also serve to speed up efforts to make power more affordable and accessible to everyone, he says.
The past year has been characterised by international developments that had impacted Africa’s power sector. However, he says: “We must create a strong ecosystem, where government and private sector are working together to address competitiveness, drive ethical and transparent business practices, to reduce risk and ultimately lower the cost of doing business.
“The disruptions we see in the world today can only be expected to increase. Our challenge is to be proactive, to take courage, and be innovative to bring more power, faster and more sustainably to Africa.”
New technologies and the industrial Internet of Things (IIoT) could spur development and progress in the power sector, says Leon Viljoen, MD of ABB Southern Africa. “Automation took power sector productivity from a baseline of 50% to 65%. Then centralisation and ERP systems took us to 80% in most power plants. We believe that productivity can be increased from 80% to closer to 95% by collaboration in an IIoT environment.”
He adds that big data analysis also stood to reduce costs, improve profitability and availability in power plants: “The amount of data generated by power plants is overwhelming, but in many cases very little of it is harnessed; it is isolated from subject matter experts and best practices are not always utilised.”
Speakers emphasised the importance of innovation in financing and operations, the need to embrace new digital technologies and the importance of reducing carbon emissions in power production in Africa.