BRIDGING POWER APR temporary power facility in Angola. Bridging power to alleviate Africa’s deficit It is no secret that Africa is short of electricity, but significant quantities of bridging power are having a big impact on countries ranging from Libya to Botswana, Mali to Angola. T he north African country of Libya is now the site of the world’s largest single contract for fast track-bridging power ever undertaken. APR Energy has supplied Libya with a guaranteed capacity of 450 MW. The technologies used are dual-fuel turbines originally derived from the aircraft turbine industry, and diesel generator sets. In the western world terms, the amount of bridging power added in Libya through that deal is sufficient to provide electricity to some 500,000 houses. It is hard to understate the impact that the fast rollout of mobile modular turbine technology in particular, taking the form of 25 to 30 MW turbines, has for countries across Africa. Since its liberation from decades of dictatorship, Libya has seen changes in energy ministers and the country’s utilities have lacked complete knowledge about the condition of the electricity system. Brian Rich, chief operating officer of APR Energy, says, “When we won an initial contract to supply 250 MW of mobile turbine technology, we put people ESI AFRICA ISSUE 2 2014 onto the ground and started walking through the country’s power system. We discovered that a quarter of the capacity thought to be operational turned out not to be. APR presented the findings of the extent to which the system was under- maintained and was short of capacity to the utilities and ministries in Libya. It was likely the system would crash within days or months, and this led to Libya’s decision to secure additional power quickly.” When Libya’s interim government came into power it had already realised that the country’s requirement for power was so acute that it called in everyone it could. It put out its request globally and its ambit included power ships, in fact any technology that could provide a solution. However, the General Electricity Company of Libya (GECOL) required large blocks of grid-stabilising power, and as a result was dead set on turbines. “APR Energy was the only group that stepped up to the plate in that regard,” Rich says. “Once the energy minister became aware that the 250 MW would not be enough, he asked if we had further capacity to add,” Rich continues. “While we did not have additional turbines at the time, we were able to offer another 200 MW of diesel generator power.” The first units were rolled out in July 2013, the balance by 15 August. The diesel generators represented a six-month contract that has since been extended by six months. To guarantee 450 MW at all times, additional capacity was installed, taking it to some 520 MW in total. As a result, on more than one occasion additional electricity has been dispatched by APR in Libya. “Typically the capacity factor of the plant we use is in the mid-90% range, and for some systems we guarantee 100% delivery through having overcapacity in place.” Rich, who spent much of his career in the fixed infrastructure power sector, compares a project in Cameroon, which took 27 months to deliver 88 MW, to the possibility of delivering half a gigawatt within just a few months. “It is revolutionising an industry. We were able 33