Author Archive for: Engineering News

A $42-million dam a century in the making could end water shortages for more than half a million Zimbabweans — and win votes for the ruling party in an opposition stronghold that may decide next year’s presidential election. The expected completion early in 2023 of the Gwayi-Shangani dam 153 miles north west of Bulawayo is part of a strategy by President Emmerson Mnangagwa’s ruling Zimbabwe African National Union-Patriotic Front to capture votes in the country’s long-neglected second-largest city, according to analysts. Zanu-PF has traditionally struggled to make inroads into urban areas in the province, an area dominated by the minority Ndebele ethnic group.

Eskom is implementing Stage 2 load-shedding from 16:00 to 24:00 on Wednesday and Thursday.  “The delay in returning a generation unit to service each at Arnot, Koeberg and the Kusile power stations, as well as the unplanned outage of a generation unit each at Camden, Medupi and two units each at Grootvlei, Hendrina and Majuba power stations, have exacerbated the capacity constraints,” Eskom said. 

An Africa-focused hydro-power startup has teamed up with a Californian maker of ‘fish-safe’ turbines in a bid to solve electricity supply problems in the Democratic Republic of Congo. MyHydro has signed a memorandum of understanding with the Congolese government to develop 36 small hydro projects in a country where only about 10% of its 100-million people have access to electricity. The plants will use turbines made by Natel Energy, which have blunted blades that leave almost all the fish that pass through the turbines unharmed.

Mineral Resources and Energy Minister Gwede Mantashe reported that the bid submission deadline for Bid Window Six (BW6) of the Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme would be delayed by between 45 and 60 days to ensure procedural fairness in light of President Cyril Ramaphosa’s announcement that the size of the round would be doubled from 2 600 MW to 5 200 MW. The bid submission date for BW 6 was initially set down for August 11, after the request for proposals (RFP) documentation was published on April 6.

Renewable energy company EIMS Africa has successfully acquired Renewable Energy Empowerment Management Services (Reesco) – a key step in the company’s expansion plans as it anticipates increasing its generation capacity to about 1 500 MW by late 2022.

EIMS Africa’s current renewable energy portfolio comprises 13 utility-scale projects with a combined generation capacity of over 850 MW, including the 50 MW De Wildt solar farm in the North West province.