GAS TO POWER Distributed power from gas in Africa The use of distributed gas powered engines to supply non-grid connected electricity, as well as grid connected power, is a field that is finding increasing and diverse potential across Africa. T he range of gas sources that could be used to meet some of Africa’s burgeoning power requirements is quite large and varied, ranging from traditional natural gas to landfill gas, biomass gasification, coal bed methane, gasses associated with petroleum products, underground coal gasification and off-gases from furnaces and smelters. Of course you have to have the engines that can operate as generators from such gasses, and Conan Jones, sub-Saharan Africa area sales leader for GE Gas Engines, says his group has specialised in delivering power from such varied gas sources. Traditionally, the largest market in Africa for this division of GE is in Nigeria where it has over 100 engines in the field with a capacity totalling over 200 MW, all using natural gas for fuel, and mostly owned by private sector entities. This country alone accounts for the majority of the estimated 160 GE gas fired engines operating across sub-Saharan Africa totalling about 300 MW, with many more also installed in the five north African countries of Egypt, Algeria, Libya, Tunisia and Morocco. “These power facilities in Nigeria all follow the blueprint for distributed power and typically feature individual industrial operations that want to control their own power resources,” Jones says. “Because companies want to control their own power supply and ensure that this is reliable, a lot of these want dual fuel capability, with diesel as an option should gas supply become unavailable.” However, these operators, as well as GE, see gas as the future because it costs less and is a cleaner option, whereas diesel is already a grudge purchase. There is the shortage of generation capacity in Nigeria, but there is a more specific reason for the popularity of gas engine power in that country, even though gas engine capital costs are higher than those of diesel generators. In Nigeria, gas is one third of the cost of diesel per unit of energy. Gas power generation units can range from 300 kW up to 4.0 MW and groups often go for an N+1 approach which sees one unit as backup. Sizes of overall gas fired plants at companies and A 13.6 MW off-gas project is being undertaken at Tronox’s Namakwa Sands mineral sands operations in Saldanha. ESI AFRICA ISSUE 3 2013 39