Africa’s most developed economy is facing regular power breakdown due to ageing coal-fired plants and need of an extra 4-6 gigawatts (GW) of generating capacity.
The country based its hope on new power projects to help it out of a crippling energy through securing investments for 11 of its power projects selected to deliver 2 GW by the mid of 2023 during its 2020 emergency auction, is yet to secure the anticipated investments.
“When they were bid, I do think (the projects) were feasible,” said Sherrill Byrne, a banker at Standard Bank who has worked with some of the companies. “But the market moved against them, and now they are struggling,” according to Reuters.
The Three smallest projects all from Norway’s Scatec with one of 50-megawatt capacity have made significant progress in October.
“The other two are likely to start before the end of the year,” said Zaid Moola, head of investment banking at Standard Bank, the lead financier to Scatec’s projects.
