Power generation woes in Ivory Coast and Ghana hit industry and neighbours

A drop in electricity generation in Ivory Coast and Ghana has left households and businesses fuming as well as cutting power supplies to neighbouring West African countries Mali and Burkina Faso, officials said. A prolonged dry season has reduced water levels at hydropower dams in both countries that in some cases could take months to resolve, hampering productivity, raising costs and hitting the economies of the world’s biggest cocoa producers.
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Regulator gears up to evaluate new discounted tariff deal for Hillside smelter

The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) has invited stakeholder comment on a proposed 10-year negotiated pricing agreement (NPA) between Eskom and the Hillside aluminium smelter, in KwaZulu-Natal, which is owned by South32 and is Eskom’s largest single customer. The proposed NPA is likely to attract much public scrutiny in light of the fact that the previous tariff agreement between Eskom and Hillside had been the subject of years of intense public scrutiny and criticism, including one proposal that supply to the smelter be terminated as a way of addressing growth-sapping load-shedding.
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‘New normal’ of elevated renewables deployments outlined in new market update

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has revised upwards, by 25%, its forecasts for renewable-energy capacity additions for 2021 and 2022 relative to those published in November, arguing that the platform is now in place for a “new normal” of elevated levels of yearly deployments. In its ‘Renewable Energy Market Update’, published on May 11, the IEA reports that additions, principally in the form of solar photovoltaic (PV) and wind, surged by more than 45% last year to 280 GW.
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