Roaring Success For Enlit Africa 2023

Text by Martin Chemhere

Enlit Africa, the continent’s leading meeting place for the big players in the African energy and power industry, recently grouped thought leaders in South Africa to explore and share ideas. Over 250 exhibiting companies and 4,500 guests attended the event at the Cape Town International Convention Centre (CTICC), from the 16th to the 18th of May, 2023.

The event was characterised by top-level discussion sessions, high quality product demonstrations, enthusiastic visitor interactions and enquiries and networking, showing the value of this platform to the African energy and power industry as well as the economies of the continent at large.

“Enlit Africa 2023 was well recognised as a great success at such a critical time for the African Power and Energy sector,” according to the Vuka Africa website, the organisers of Enlit Africa. Creating a strong presence at the conference were Asian countries, with China having the largest booth occupancy rate. Thanks to their rising influence and economic power, the Asian giant is arguably the world’s biggest economy, a factor underlined by their large displays, mainly in renewable energy – solar in particular.

With the African energy and power sector saddled with numerous and seemingly insurmountable challenges (as seen at Eskom in South Africa and ZESA in Zimbabwe), the conclusion of Enlit Africa as a “great success” shows the continent is poised to emerge from an electricity choke hold, sooner or later.

There were also important discussions about creating opportunities to achieve Africa’s ‘Just Energy Transition’. Just Energy Transition Africa (JETA) is an initiative set up by nonprofit environmental, energy and climate justice lawyers aimed at supporting African communities and CSOs (Civil Society Organisations) and leading the advocacy for our clean energy future while assisting the growth of a legal community of practice across the continent.

Visitors had the opportunity to hear from knowledgeable professionals working for companies that were exhibiting at the conference. Free-to-attend presentations in the Knowledge Hub were popular with attendees, who heard themes such as the use of gas to augment power, principles of wheeling electricity, battery energy storage and selling power back to the grid. The hub sessions and keynote addresses were attractive for those seeking to empower themselves with valuable energy and power information.

The conference also featured a strong gender focus and women empowerment element with the Women in Energy association making their presence felt in a male dominated industry, courtesy of sponsorship from the Energy Council of Canada. The Women in Energy platform drew female authorities in the global power and energy sector to share information via a series of exclusive events. The women shared their inspiring experiences on a platform that was designed to amplify their voices and visions. Their personal stories motivated and inspired each other in an industry where their male counterparts take the largest share of leadership.

SADC region energy and power outlook

Zimbabwean economist Eddie Cross, presented a speech under the title “Meeting the Challenge to Secure Energy Supplies: Finding our way into the future”.

He highlighted that the SADC Region faced a severe energy crisis, consuming over 60 000 megawatts and has a current short fall of an average of 20 000 megawatts. The major problems were energy utilities in the region not having the financial capacity to invest in new energy production with investments in new power generation taking many years to come on line and existing power generation plants that are outdated and the power infrastructure debilitated. Cross said that in response to the situation the private sector in Zimbabwe has formed a group of power consumers and three subsidiaries aiming to trade in energy, paying in hard currency and securing continuous supply with no load shedding. In addition they plan to invest in new Independent Power Plants (IPPs) to meet the need for power in the future and to support regional utilities in the upgrades required for the power grid.

“A Master Plan for the regional grid is under preparation and the group will support financing arrangements. Some new private sector funded and operated power plants are being planned and executed. These will allow Zimbabwe to become a net exporter of power to regional states by 2028.

In conclusion, he noted that the solutions being pursued by the private sector in Zimbabwe are all being funded without state support. All projects will be selfliquidating and profitable at market prices and the model might well be used to support new investments in other infrastructure to the national benefit and that this is a prime example of a Public-Private Partnership (PPP).

Indeed, this year’s edition was very informative and inspirational and a great success.