Friends,

We hope you all have enjoyed your summer (or winter if you’re in Southern Africa) and vacations.

Power Africa has hit some great momentum these past few months. This great work is reflected in the 180-Day Electrify Africa Act of 2015 Report Submitted to Congress. This report reflects progress to date, as well as the plans for achieving the goals of both Power Africa and the Electrify Africa Act.

Earlier this summer, President Obama hosted the White House Summit on Global Development, where he talked about Power Africa’s accomplishments and efforts, and where USTDA Director Lee Zak moderated a Power Africa panel that featured UN SE4All's Rachel Kyte, Contour Global's Joe Brandt, and Power Africa's Ethiopia Transaction Advisor Neb Girma. Trust me that this one is a MUST WATCH -- all the panelists were brilliant with their remarks about Power Africa. The full panel can be seen on the White House blog, starting at at 6:08:45.

Read on for this month’s exciting highlights and developments:

Another Milestone Reached in Malawi thanks to Power Africa’s Transaction Advisors and the team at the U.S. Embassy. The Government of Malawi initialed its first ever Power Purchasing Agreement (PPA) for an Independent Power Project (IPP) with Power Africa partner JCM Capital. The 30 MW JCM Salima/Matswani Solar project concluded negotiations with an initialed PPA on August 10. Power Africa began advising the off-taker (ESCOM) in June and spearheaded the PPA negotiation process. In addition, the ESCOM IPP team has been trained throughout and as such are much better equipped to participate in the negotiations with confidence.

Lake Turkana is well on its way. Construction of the Power Africa-supported 300 MW Lake Turkana Wind Power Project (LTWP) is Kenya is proceeding well, with over 100 turbines having been erected to date, at an enhanced average rate of nine per week. Construction of the transmission line has accelerated, as well, and is scheduled to be completed by May 2017. Reports in the press have cited the Governor of Marsabit County having hailed the project as a game-changer for the county.   

Solar Mini-grids Workshop. U.S.-Africa Clean Energy Standards Program (CESP), a USTDA-sponsored program implemented by the American National Standards Institute (ANSI) is organizing a Solar Mini-grids Workshop: Regulatory Framework and Quality Assurance, in partnership with Power Africa, to be held in Nairobi on September 29 supported by the Kenya Rural Electrification Authority (REA).  The workshop will be targeted to private developers and public sector mini-grid implementers.

Mobile finance support in Nigeria. Power Africa’s Beyond the Grid (BTG) is developing new pilots to help off-grid companies use mobile finance to overcome the consumer finance barrier, working with the Commercial Bank of Nigeria (CBN) and Mobile Money Operators (MMO). In addition, BTG is carrying out a market assessment to collect and collate all relevant information for off-grid companies on their potential customers, the regulatory environment and their potential supply chains.”

Off-grid Appliances Workshop. Power Africa and US DOE’s Global Lighting and Energy Access Partnership (Global LEAP), in partnership with Lumos, are planning a workshop focused on efficient off-grid appliances in Nigeria in mid-October. Despite the growing demands for 12V DC appliances, stocks and product variety are still limited in Nigeria The leading companies operating in the local home appliances space require additional education about the market potential and support to overcome challenges of product design and adaptation to meet solar home system company technical requirements, standard and price. The workshop will build on the growing momentum and increased interest in the efficient DC appliance market to help provide this information and encourage significant players to participate.

International Finance Corporation (IFC) web portal for Mini-Grid developers in Tanzania. IFC launched a one-stop information hub for mini-grids in Tanzania. The hub is designed to help improve access to information on the policy, legal and regulatory requirements and processes by aggregating the licensing and permitting procedures. There are several different forms of licenses, permits and approvals that a project developer needs to obtain, and this information is not always readily available. These efforts have been achieved under the SREP Tanzania Program that was prepared under the leadership of the Government of Tanzania, through a National Task Force led by the Ministry of Energy and Minerals. The broader SREP program in Tanzania seeks to catalyze the deployment of renewable energy and diversify the energy sector. The web portal can be accessed through www.minigrids.go.tz.

Power Africa Helps Reduce Energy Theft in Nigeria. The Power Africa Distribution Company (DisCo) team discovered more than 83 non-registered air conditioners, consuming electricity illegally in Abuja DisCo. The consumers, including those using improvised fridges to produce blocks of ice, were retroactively billed for the energy theft.  For the first time, the team managed to provide documentation to support bill losses in kWh through the billing center by capturing kWh information in the customer account records. At Eko DisCo, the DisCo team uncovered that 8 out of 10 customers inspected, bypassed and stole electricity. One customer, in particular, was stealing electricity through the use of TV cabling, an unusual method that is also more difficult to detect.

We are getting prepped up for the U.S. Africa Business Forum and the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York in September, not to mention the release of our Annual Report. We hope to see you at these events and COP-22 scheduled for November!

Best,
Andy