East Africa experts meet over energy crisis

Executives of various power companies in East Africa are set to discuss ways of financing energy projects in the region in an effort to overcome the current power crisis.

Amy Offord, the marketing manager, EnergyNet, a United Kingdom-based consulting firm, said at least 120 executives are expected in Mombasa between November 9 and 11 to mobilise funds that can help lessen the region’s energy burdens.

The meeting comes at a time when the East African power sector is experiencing a taxing time, with power shortages likely to impinge on economic output.

In Uganda, load shedding has increased by four folds from 12 to 48 hours in some places.

Uganda’s current power crisis is largely a result of government’s failure to pay independent power producers, drought as well as failed and delayed power projects.

This has forced the Directorate of Water in Uganda to limit the available water for hydro electricity generation from Lake Victoria from 1,000 cubic metres to 800 cubic metres.

“If East Africa is to stabilise power production and distribution, access to finance is critical.However, this has not been the case in a couple of years,” Offord said.

He added that the meeting will give insight into what was available and how those funds can be accessed. The meeting comes at a time when Uganda’s electricity distributor Umeme limited is planning to sell off some of its stake through a regional Initial Public Offering (IPO), to raise an undisclosed amount of money.

Previous discussions have featured the pros and cons of an IPO in raising finance for energy projects.

Executives from Kenya’s power generator Kengen are expected to tip their counterparts on the debate.

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Posted by AfricaSTI on October 2, 2011. Filed under Energy. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. You can leave a response or trackback to this entry