I. INTRODUCTION In agreement with the purpose of the UNION, holding UPDEA Congress should have been an occasion, in principle, to recap evolution of the African power sector within its main components, namely : - the number of new places electrified in-between two Congresses - the African population having access to electricity (new connections performed). - The yearly consumption per capita - The aggregate installed power and by generation source (hydro, thermal, nuclear, solar power). - The aggregate generation sales and per source - The manufacturing plants of electrical materials or those modernized - The comprehensive volume of power sales (Mwh and US$) - The new interconnection lines - Power exchanges between countries (Mwh and US$) - The partnerships made in the packages of investments in this sector. Due to lack of reliable and complete data, the comparative inventory of fixtures cannot be issued now. Thanks to the ongoing (UPDEA databank project) undertaken by the General Secretariat, such a report will be possible at the 15 th Congress. Therefore, this report is limited to the actual activities of UPDEA. It contains a summary of UNION activities since the last congress held in Dakar, 7 11 June 1999. II. ACTIVITIES OF THE UNION ORGANS 2.1. General Assembly The General Assembly met seven times in 4 ordinary sessions and 3 extraordinary ones at the following dates and venues : Ordinary Assemblies o Abidjan : September 30, 1999 o Abidjan : January 20, 2000 o Johannesburg : December 19, 2000 o Libreville : January 15, 2002 Extraordinary Assemblies o Dakar : August 2000 o Khartoum : April 8, 2001 o Johannesburg : September 14, 2001.
The main decisions and resolution taken at these sessions involved : - Organisation of the 2 nd Conference of Managing Directors and Chief Executives held in April 2001 in Khartoum - Adoption of the new constitution and by-laws - Deciding active member dues according to turnover instead of generation volume - IEEC liquidation - The new role of UPDEA Concerning the last General Assembly held in January 2002 in Libreville, there is need to stress on the decision to redefine the new role of UPDEA considering the current context of the African power sector. On this ground, a mandate was given to UPDEA Secretary General in relationships with the representatives of SONELGAZ (Mr DJEMA BENSARI) and CEB Mr KOUAGOU MPO Cyr to work out a document on the future role of UPDEA, for presentation, and approval, at the General Assembly to take place at the 14 th Congress. This document was prepared and adopted by the Executive Committee which took place on 13 th April 2002 in Cairo. It is among the working documents attached. After adopting the principles to reorganise the organs of the UNION included in this document, the General Secretariat submitted to an Extraordinary General Assembly the draft amendments on the constitution and by-laws that resulted. On the other side, the General Assembly in Libreville requested the General Secretariat to make sure that UPDEA will play the role of catalyst in setting up power pools in Africa. On the topic and on initiative of the General Secretariat was held in Brazzaville 3 5 June 2002 a workshop on how to set up a power pool in Central Africa. This workshop was massively attended by utilities and government representatives from countries of this subregion. As a result of this workshop the delegates have adopted : - the name PEAC (in French Pool Energétique de l Afrique Central or CAPP (Central Africa Power Pool) - a list of priority power projects to integrate the subregion - an implementation scheme leading to the signature of the founding documents in November 2002 In addition, the General Secretariat has participated in the meeting organized by ECOWAS from 2 nd to 5 th April 2002 in Accra on works to set up a power pool in West Africa. The Libreville General Assembly has also asked the General Secretariat to negotiate, one by one, with the utilities having arrears, a payment schedule. 2
On the subject, after contacts made by the Secretariat, the following results were achieved : - NEPA (Nigeria) has paid all arrears (1997/98, 1999, 2000, 2001) - SOPIE (Côte d Ivoire), SONICHAR (Niger) and GECOL (Lybia) have settled their arrears - SNE : 2.2. Executive Committee The Executive Committees has also met in seven sessions generally the day before each General Assembly to prepare the decisions with the main ones above. On the other hand, following a screening, the Executive Committee has recruited a new Secretary General. 2.3. Scientific Committee Study Committees The Scientific Committee has met 4 times at the following dates and venues. o Abidjan February 2001 o Cotonou May 2001 o Abidjan January 2002 o Durban 25 26 April 2002 Works of the Scientific and Study Committees mainly involved the organisation of the following Seminars and Colloquia : - Colloquium on Industrial medicine and electrical hazards (Abidjan 16 18 August 2002) - Seminar on Development of distribution networks derived from the typical medium voltage for rural electrification jointly held with PIESA (Lusaka, 10-13 September 2001) - Colloquium on tariffs problems of African power utilities in the 21 st Century and customers requirements (Luanda 23-26 March 2002). On the other side, Experts of the Scientific Committee have pondered on the reorganisation of this important organ of the Union. The related report is attached. 2.4. General Secretariat Apart from the activities mentioned in points 21 and 22 as part of the missions of the General Secretariat entrusted by the General Assembly and the Executive Committee, the General Secretariat took in agreement with its role the following main actions : 3
a) New memberships Following contacts made by the General Secretariat with the support of the UNION President, the following results were noted :. General Assembly of Libreville held in January 2002, 5 new memberships of active members were approved, namely : REGIDESO (Burundi), ENE (Angola), DRSC (Marocco) NAWEC (Gambia) and JIRAMA (Madagascar) who returned after 26 years of withdrawal.. Utilities who have applied for membership since Libreville Assembly are : Energie de Manantali (OMVS) ZESCO (Zambia) EAGB (Entreprise d Electricité et Eau de la Guinée Bissau). After approval by the current General Assembly of these new memberships the number of members will raise from 30 to 37 from October 2001. This number may soon reach 38 if KPLC-Kenya confirms its intent to join the Union as stated in a mail sent to the General Secretariat in March 2002. b) Revitalisation of members The President of the UNION and the General Secretariat have harmoniously conducted actions to revive the members who were no more participating actively in UPDEA activities for various reasons. These actions have enabled the following utilities to retake their place within the UNION : These are : o NEPA (Nigeria) o EEHC (Egypt) o SENELEC (Sénégal) o ELECTROGAZ (Rwanda) o LEC (Liberia) o SONICHAR (Niger) o GECOL (Lybia) 4
b) Outside image of UPDEA c.1. Study journey to Europe In the framework of organising the organs in connection with the new role of UPDEA, the Secretary General went to Europe from 8 to 12 to attend working sessions with organisations similar to the UNION (CIGRE, CIRED and EURELECTRIC). The purpose of this journey was to : o get informed on the organisation and operation of these structures in order to draw lessons from them for UPDEA. o define the cooperation lines between the technical structures of these organisations and the Scientific Committee of UPDEA. The agreements which may come out between UPDEA and these organisations would be signed by the UNION President. c.2. UPDEA NEPAD Relationships Upon invitation of the Senegalese President, Mr WADE, UPDEA was represented by Mr. Joseph MATSAU (ESKOM) and the Secretary General at the summit of the African heads of state on financing NEPAD by the private sector held in DAKAR from 15 to 17 April 2002. UPDEA was the reporter of the workshop on Energy. At the end of this summit, the Secretary General had talks with the Senegalese Minister of Energy. Senegal being responsible for the power sector in the framework of NEPAD, the Minister manifested a willingness to get support from UPDEA as a preferred partner in implementing NEPAD in the electricity sub-sector. As requested by the Secretary General, the Minister confirmed these provision by letter reference 02082/MMEH/CTLO dated May 18, 2002. d) Various activities d.1. UPDEA databank With the help of SENELEC, the General Secretariat has launched the Implementation of UPDEA databank accessible on Internet. On the subject, a team of specialists in NTIC (New Techniques of Information and Communication), seconded by SENELEC, stayed in Abidjan from May 24 to June 10, 2002. 5
As a result of this mission : o Internet is implemented at UPDEA head office (the computer pool is connected) o Internet design is broadened to all member utilities. Further stages involve : o The effective implementation of Internet broadened to all member utilities o Setting up a UPDEA databank on internet site d.2. Comparative Study on tariffs The General Secretariat undertook since March 2002 a study to compare electricity tariffs used in Africa. The first issue of that study is available since June 2002. 6