Association of Power Utilities of Africa hopeful to address solutions on challenges faced by Africa’s energy sector

APUA Director General, Abel Tella

* The meetings’ special focus will be the strategic leadership and the governance of the power sector

* Power utilities are major player that should take the lead as their managers will have an open exchange with the association’s main sponsor, the African Development Bank

By Fazilla Tembo

Association of Power Utilities of Africa (APUA) Director General, Abel Tella has expressed hope that power challenges faced by African utility bodies can be addressed by learning from other countries who have managed to solve them.

Speaking at the start of the 57th APUA meetings underway in Lilongwe, Tella said through sharing of experiences and ideas from utility bodies in the region can help in solving such challenges, saying: “Utility bodies are facing challenges like utilization of energy sources like mining, aging infrastructure, unreliable power generation among others.

He further said the meetings’ special focus will be the strategic leadership and the governance of the power sector, adding that power utilities are major player that should take the lead as their managers will have an open exchange with the association’s main sponsor, the African Development Bank.

On his part, the host — Electricity Generation Company (EGENCO) Chief Executive Officer, William Liabunya — said there is need for countries to build more efficient and resilient utilities as they exchange ideas.

“We will be sharing true life challenges which we are experiencing as utility bodies,” he said, adding that Malawi has its own experiences and it will gain more from the ideas and solutions from the regional utility bodies.

Liabunya said Malawi faced weather conditions like droughts and cyclones which largely affected the generation of power in the country but managed to come out through learning of ideas from such forums.

EGENCO is hosting the five-day APUA conference to take stock of the activities carried out over the one year period; discuss the status of scientific activities, projects and reforms implemented and projected in the sector; promote the activities of member companies; develop South-South cooperation in order to encourage the emergence of a local African industry of electrical equipment and services to give impetus to the energy sector.

APUA, formerly designated as the Union of Power Producers and Distributors in Africa (UPDEA), was established in 1970 with its headquarters in Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire and the entity has undergone some transformations by becoming an association which provides value for its members.

One of the mainstays of the transformation of APUA is the plan to establish an African Network of Centers of Excellence in Electricity — with the support of the French Development Cooperation Agency (AFD) and the African Development Bank (AfDB).

The 2023 annual meetings is the first annual meetings under the term of office of SENELEC (Senegal) as current chair of APUA (2022-2025) following the memorable Dakar 50 years anniversary Congress held in July 2022.

The purpose of the meetings is to take stock of the activities carried out over the one-year period; to discuss the status of scientific activities, projects and reforms implemented and projected in the sector.