14 September 2010 - Zambia expects a power project that will add 360 megawatts to the national grid to start producing electricity way ahead of the November 2012 target, a senior project official said on Monday.

Zambia, Africa's top copper producer, needs to raise its power generation capacity to ensure sufficient supply as demand is expected to rise on the back of new investments in mining and other sectors.

14 September 2010 - South Africa's power utility Eskom said on Friday it may get an additional 150 billion rand in state support to pay for new power plants and ease an electricity supply shortfall.

Financial Director Paul O'Flaherty said that while the figure has not been finalised yet, additional guarantees and a special-purpose vehicle to raise debt and recapitalise Eskom were under discussion.

14 September 2010 - ABB, the leading power and automation technology group, has won an order worth $23 million from Eskom, South Africa’s leading electric utility, to supply an electrical balance of plant (eBoP) solution for the Ingula Pumped Storage Scheme (PSS), currently under construction on the border of the Free State and KwaZulu-Natal provinces in South Africa.

14 September 2010 - South Africa plans to establish an independent power purchasing authority by April 2011 in an effort to encourage private investment in power generation, a senior energy official said on Monday.

Under the existing system, the state-owned power utility Eskom, the country's main power distributor, also buys power from independent producers.

13 September 2010 - With South Africans facing the challenge of reducing electricity consumption, a biennial competition to encourage the integration of energy efficient lighting in architectural, engineering and interior design, recently received a record number of entries.

The competition that closed on 30 July 2010, received a record number of 567 entries by designers, architects and engineering professionals and students who took on Eskom’s challenge to integrate energy efficient lighting sources with outstanding design solutions. Each entrant assembled a working lighting fixture designed specifically for energy efficient light bulbs. 

10 September 2010 - South Africa's power utility Eskom will start procuring renewable energy projects next month to help ease power shortages in the country and relieve its carbon footprint, it said on Wednesday.

The utility said it would start the procurement in October or November, even before a planned independent power purchase body, to be created to negotiate power purchase deals separately from Eskom, was created.

10 September 2010 - Megger Limited has recently expanded their Middle East operations and has appointed Mohammed Saleh as Service & Repair Manager to cover the Middle East.

Mohammed is a Bahraini national who has a background in Electrical Engineering, previously working for companies such as Balexco and working on the ALBA Line 5 project for over two years.

10 September 2010 - Kenya's KenGen will add 20.4 megawatts of electricity from wind turbines at a single site in a move to add renewable power sources to help stabilise supplies by 2013, its energy minister said on Wednesday.

Ranked as east Africa's largest economy, Kenya has a low power generation capacity and is heavily dependent on good rainfall to fill its dams.