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The government of Nigeria and Siemens have set a three-stage plan to add 25 GW of power generation capacity to the grid by 2025. The first phase of the plan envisions 7 GW of capacity additions by 2021 and 11 GW by 2023; the remaining 7 GW should be installed between 2023 and 2025. The values agreed upon for the plan were not disclosed. The electricity capacity in Nigeria amounts to 18 GW (over 85% thermal) but only a fraction of it is available for power delivery to final consumers. The power consumption per capita is very low at 144.5 kWh compared to South Africa (4,796 kWh). 

The Ministry of New and Renewable Energy (MNRE) of India has issued guildelines for rolling out the PM-KUSUM scheme, which aims at encouraging farmers to replace diesel water pumps with solar capacities.

Chinese state-run nuclear corporation China National Nuclear Corporation (CNNC) has signed a contract with Russia’s Rosatom subsidiary TVEL for the supply of nuclear fuel for the units 7 and 8 of the Tianwan nuclear power plant in the Jiangsu province of China. TVEL will supply fuel for the first core of the reactors and for refuelling. Tianwan 7 and 8 would be VVER-1200 reactors.

Japan’s largest oil refiner JXTG Holdings plans to shut down the 115,000 bbl/d refinery jointly owned with PetroChina in Osaka (Japan) in October 2020, citing decreasing demand for oil products in Japan and fiercer competition in Asia. JXTG owns a 51% stake in the joint venture (JV), while PetroChina owns the remaining 49%.

According to the Central Electricity Authority (CEA) of India, renewable power capacity in India is expected to increase six-fold in the next decade, reducing the share of coal-fired power plants in the power mix from 46% to 32%.

The Polish gas transmission system operator (TSO) Gaz-System has selected a consortium of Budimex Mostostal and Mostostal Kraków to build the Polish section (59 km) of the Poland-Slovakia gas interconnection project. The gas pipeline will have a capacity of 5.7 bcm/year to Poland and 4.7 bcm/year to Slovakia.

The British power transmission system operator (TSO) National Grid and its Danish counterpart Energinet.dk have chosen cable and converter station suppliers for their 1,400 MW Viking Link power interconnection project, which will stretch from the Lincolnshire coast (United Kingdom) to Western Denmark.

The Iranian Gas Engineering and Development Company (IGEDC) plans to develop 4,100 km of new gas pipelines across Iran by 2025, including 800 km by March 2020. The company has outsourced the construction of 2,000 km of pipelines to private developers.