10 March 2010 - The Pebble Bed Modular Reactor Company (PBMR) is to begin large scale restructuring which could see up to 75% of the 800 strong workforce lose their jobs.

Tom Ferreira, PBMR spokesperson, said that the staff were expected to be absorbed by institutions like Eskom and the Nuclear Energy Corporation (Necsa), as well as private engineering companies.

10 March 2010 - Siemens Energy Southern Africa, a supplier to Eskom's coal-fired plants and pumped storage schemes, aimed to expand its renewable energy unit into its biggest division, chief executive Dion Govender said this week.

Govender said Siemens Energy was currently involved in the development of about 16 renewable energy projects in South Africa.

9 March 2010 - Agreements between the government of France and the North African governments of Algeria, Libya and Tunisia have been signed during the past 2 years to establish frameworks for France to provide these North African governments with the expertise necessary to allow them to add nuclear power to their national energy matrices.

Egypt has had such an agreement with France for some time now - although it was dormant for a number of years, it has more recently been reactivated.

5 March 2010 - According to Obiageli Ezekwesili, vice president at the World Bank, the next developmental leap for Africa will be in the power sector.   Just as new technology and legal reform transformed the African telecoms market, Ezekwesili believes that a similar transformation could make a difference to Africa’s power sector.

4 March 2010 - Six generation units at the 750 MW Hwange thermal power station, which is producing only 50MW due to recurrent breakdowns of its ageing plants, might be decommissioned according to recent media reports.

The country is battling power shortages, which mining houses and industrialists say are a threat to the recovery of the economy.

2 March 2010 - Nigeria’s Federal Government recently gave major gas companies in the large West African nation the goal of providing one billion metric tonnes of gas supply daily for power plant across Nigeria..

In response, the National Union of Petroleum and Natural Gas Workers (NUPENG) have conceded that this is a realistic target as long as the government puts in place measures to monitor the gas supply chain from the producers

24 February 2010 - The National Energy Regulator of South Africa (Nersa) announced on Wednesday that the proposed electricity tariff hike has been approved and will be increased by 24.8% starting from April 1st, 2010.  Furthermore, Nersa has already approved future power tariff increase of 25.8% on April 1st, 2011 and 25.9% on April 1st, 2012.  Ultimately this means that current electricity prices in South Africa will be close to doubled by April 2012.

24 February 2010 - On the eve of Nersa announcement, Dipuo says government not in favour of rapid rates increases

The CEO of Zimbabwe’s electricity utility, Zesa (Zimbabwe Electric Supply Authority), Engineer Benjamin Rafemoyo, was named the Utility CEO of the Year at this year’s African Utility Week in Durban.  Some 1700 power professionals from over 50 countries descended on Durban for the 10th event, the largest utility event on the continent.