As countries in West and Central Africa face a rising demand for power, fuelled by growing populations and industry, there is an opportunity to introduce an improved energy mix to aid them on their journeys to reduce carbon emissions, according to Kweku Frempong, area general manager for West and Central Africa (WACA) at Aggreko
Frempong further added that it is critical as countries look to increase their energy generation capacity to look at flexible commercial and technical solutions that incorporate a mix of thermal and renewable resources.
“As Aggreko we are leading the journey on transitioning to more eco-friendly fuels to generate electricity,” he said.
“As a global organisation we have already made a commitment to reduce our carbon emissions and use of diesel fuel with customers by 50% by 2030 and achieving net-zero across our fleet by 2050.”
Frempong added that along with the move to using alternative fuel sources in the region, there is also an aggressive push for decentralised power on the continent, especially in remote areas with small populations where it is not cost-effective to connect them to the grid.
Countries like Cote d’Ivoire, Ghana and Nigeria have long faced long periods with no investment in the grid and transmission and distribution lines. “The lack of investment into the grids in these countries have led to a lot more power outages,” he said.
Frempong added that another noticeable trend is that of regulatory changes around decentralisation. “We are seeing a lot of economies moving to a willing seller, willing buyer model. We saw this recently in South Africa and Nigeria, where the countries have relaxed the traditional models of transmission and distribution to the consumer as well as to key sectors such as manufacturing and mining who have significant power needs. They can now also contract directly with independent power producers (IPPs) to meet their power demands, which in turn opens up these economies for private sector investment in the power sector.” a
