Focus to fall on Africa’s power needs

Thanks to increasing
international interest in
Africa, the first new POWERGEN
conference to be
launched in ten years will
be held in Johannesburg in
November next year.
Organised by PennWell
Corporation, the event
will feature leading power
industry professionals from
around the world who will
share their expertise and
experiences to help define
Africa’s energy sector of the
future, said Nigel Blackaby,
POWER-GEN Africa event
director.
“The inaugural POWERGEN
Africa will provide
comprehensive coverage
of the power needs,
resources, and issues facing
the electricity generation
industries across sub-Saharan
Africa,” he added.
Blackwell said with reserve
margins virtually nonexistent
in the sub-Saharan
Africa region, leading to
blackout and load shedding
scenarios, the region faced the
real prospect of inadequate
energy infrastructure acting
as a brake on current and
future economic growth.
In tackling these problems,
the region also faces a great
shortage in the area of trained
engineering professionals.