APUA DG Tella hopeful on solutions for addressing energy woes in Africa

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.

Tella was speaking on Saturday on the sidelines of the 57th APUA meeting underway in Lilongwe that through sharing of experiences and ideas from utility bodies in the region can help in solving such challenges.

“Utility bodies are facing challenges like utilization of energy sources like mining, aging infrastructure, unreliable power generation among others,” he said.

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

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

“We will be sharing true life experiences which we are experiencing as utility bodies,” he said.

Liabunya said 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 a five- day 57th APUA conference 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, to 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.