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Nigerian president defends slow pace of reform
Nick Tattersall, Reuters
Nigeria’s President Umaru Yar’Adua faced up to criticism that he had achieved little in his first year of office on Thursday by repeating promises to resolve a crippling power crisis and hinting at changes to his cabinet.
…Many Nigerians, for whom the absence of electricity is the number one complaint, might have found his words hard to swallow had they been able to watch the interview.
But the power crisis has become so severe that much of the country has been without mains electricity for weeks, plunging neighbourhoods without private generators into darkness every night and heightening frustration among its 140 million people.
…Nigeria, the world’s eighth biggest oil producer, currently has a generation capacity of about 3,000 MW. South Africa, with a third of the population, has more than 10 times that capacity.
(30 May 2008)
NZ blackouts ‘likely without savings’
James Weir, The Dominion Post (New Zealand)
Blackouts are “very possible” in the North Island and probable in the South Island if huge power savings are not made now, according to a business group.
With a winter power shortage looming, storage is down to 56 per cent of average, the worst since the 1992 power crisis.
…Some industry experts say drought has left hydro power lake levels so low that there is a risk of blackouts in about six weeks, repeating the crisis of 1992.
…Power companies have prepared a public power savings campaign, along the lines of one run in 2003 during the last shortage.
If there is no rain in South Island lakes, that campaign may be launched officially in about three weeks.
(30 May 2008)
Iran drought forces power cuts
AFP
Iran is facing a summer of power cuts after a severe drought slashed output from its hydroelectric power plants, the energy minister warned, according to press reports on Thursday.
“The electricity shortage and the cuts will multiply before the start of summer,” Energy Minister Parviz Fattah was quoted as saying by the Mehr news agency.
He said there was a shortfall in electricity production due to “the drought and the lack of water” in dams.
“The production of hydro-electric power must reach 6,500 megawatts but for the moment it is only 1,500 megawatts.”
A spring of only sporadic rain has left Iran with a severe drought as it enters summer, which is normally hot and dry all over the country except in the humid northern provinces.
(29 May 2008)
Eskom CEO: Crisis to last years
Reuters, News24 (South Africa)
The power shortage that has slowed South Africa’s growth and frightened investors will go on for years, the head of Eskom warned on Thursday.
Eskom, which produces about 95% of South Africa’s electricity, has rationed power through load-shedding since January, when the national grid virtually collapsed and millions were plunged into darkness.
Large gold and platinum mines shut down for five days.
“We are going to be in this for years,” Eskom chief executive officer Jacob Maroga said in a presentation in Johannesburg. “The threat of load-shedding is with us for some time.”
(29 May 2008)
Related: Blackouts: Prepare for the worst.
Nova Scotia Power ready to fight, Venezuelan company cancels coal contract
Judy Myrden, Chronicle Herald
Nova Scotia Power is poised to take legal action against Venezuela’s state-owned coal company after it abruptly cancelled a coal contract with the electric utility, NSP president Ralph Tedesco told The Chronicle Herald editorial board Thursday.
Mr. Tedesco said NSP received a brief letter from the company last year saying that it was no longer honouring its coal deliveries to the utility for 2008.
“The letter we received from the coal company is quite concise – about three lines,” Mr. Tedesco said. “The first one begins, ‘The contract is no longer in our interest.’ “
The deal with Carbozulia was for 750,000 tonnes of coal, which represents about eight per cent of NSP’s coal requirements, he said.
(30 May 2008)
Contributor CP writes:
Nothing to see here, just another energy exporter exercising demand destruction, move along.
