Guinea renews Aggreko contract despite high cost

Beleaguered state utility Electricité de Guinée (EDG) has announced the renewal of its 50MW emergency power contract with Aggreko, which accounted for a massive 36% of EDG’s total expenditure in H1 2014. The utility’s half-year results, released in late August, show that investment in generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure received only 4% of total H1 2014 spending. According to EDG, in H1 2014 it was able to offer some 350GWh of energy, some 25% of which was purchased from Aggreko, against estimated demand of 797GWh, representing a coverage rate of 44%. Aggreko’s contribution during the six-month period was 88,631MWh, providing a lifeline to the capital, Conakry, which suffers regular power outages, particularly in outlying areas.