Angola has reduced diesel consumption for power plants by almost 60% in eight years

Diesel consumption at Angolan power plants has fallen by almost 60% over the past eight years, from 1.36 billion liters in 2015 to 568 million liters in 2023, a government industry source said on Tuesday.

The data was released by Joao Fernandez, Senior Engineer of the Ministry of Energy and Water Resources, at the opening of the conference “Renewable Energy in Angola, Framework and Challenges”, organized by Standard Bank and PLMJ Colab Angola – RVA Advogados.

According to João Fernandes, renewable energy will save millions of cubic meters of fuel annually, reduce the very high operating and maintenance costs of thermal power plants and, above all, increase access to millions of Angolans and companies located in the areas to be covered.

The official highlighted that in 2015, Angola’s electricity generation capacity was about 2,356.4 megawatts (MW), of which 39% were hydroelectric power plants and 61% were diesel thermal generators.

“Eight years later, generation capacity has increased by another 2.5 times and this Tuesday the generation capacity is 6,320.43 MW, with 39% of hydro generation catapulted to about 60% and thermal generation reduced from 61% in 2015 to approximately 36%. in 2023, about 4% of solar photovoltaic generation was introduced, with the commissioning of the Biopio and Baia Farta power plants in Benguela province with capacities of 188.8 MW and 96.7 MW respectively, corresponding to a total capacity of 285.5 MW. installed capacity,” he added.

Speaking to the press, Standard Bank Angola chief executive Ricardo Ferreira said the meeting discussed how to obtain financing to develop this ecosystem, “which clearly has the potential to become an engine of economic growth in Angola.”

Ricardo Ferreira stressed that Angola is already considered to have the potential to export energy to South Africa through transmission lines to energy-deficient countries, having invested in this area in recent years.

The chief executive of Standard Bank Angola stressed that the bank “is an important part of the financing sector in Angola” and that its goal is to align its strategy with the National Development Plan of Angola.

The official stressed that the state leads the implementation of large projects in the sector, and banks, independently or in syndicates, provide loans to the Angolan state, but “what we want is to promote the development of the private sector through public-private partnerships.” “.

“To do this, we need to attract not only international investors, with whom we have had several meetings and for whom we need to create some guarantees, because capital comes where it is welcomed, and to be welcomed, it must be released. “We need to ensure that it gets in and out, and that regulation and comfort from the government needs to be in place to attract international investors,” he said.

Standard Bank, added Ricardo Ferreira, has a list of projects under review that exceeds two billion dollars (1.9 billion euros), so “there is limited capacity to do everything that is the country’s ambition,” indicating its involvement in construction. dams with a loan to the state of more than $100 million (95 million euros).

For her part, Renata Valenti, a partner at the Portugal-based law firm PLMJ Colab Angola – RVA Advogados, noted that access to energy is not yet universal, especially in rural areas, and there is a need to expand electrification.

According to Renata Valenti, the state cannot be the sole sponsor of these projects if Angola is to achieve the goals it has set for the coming years, which also coincide with the Sustainable Development Goals.

Renata Valenti emphasized that the office is involved in some projects, but the main interest is related to the regulatory process, with the need to create a legal framework that meets the needs of investors.

“Unfortunately, we lawyers seem to be lagging behind the market. The market has needs, projects are already underway, and we need to quickly create a legal framework that makes it easier for the private sector to intervene. It is not completely structured like this yet, but it already exists. There have been a lot of discussions, and the openness of the state is great,” said the lawyer, emphasizing that the main difficulties are related to guarantees, exchange rate fluctuations and liberalization of the electricity transport market.