
Anton EberhardUniversity of Cape Town | UCT · Graduate School of Business
Anton Eberhard
PhD
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Publications (108)
In this book chapter we advance the argument that regulatory policies can have a far-reaching impact on the organizational capabilities and ultimately on the performance of public utilities. Once capabilities are lost, it may be hard to regain them in the short term. Our insights are based on a qualitative-comparative analysis of capability losing...
This study investigates recent developments in Tanzania’s electric power generation to understand how to facilitate investment in the sector. Interviews were conducted with key public and private stakeholders; utility data was analysed and critical secondary source documents were reviewed. All interview data was triangulated to ensure integrity of...
Adequate, secure, and competitively priced electricity is vital for powering economic growth and development. Privately funded, independent power producers (IPPs) are now making an important contribution to meeting overall power needs in developing countries, including in Africa. Our aim in this article is to explore what may be learned from Kenya'...
Uganda occupies a unique space in the history of power sector reform and private electricity investment in Africa. In this article, we describe the drivers for reform as well as the reform process, including the main institutions involved and the legislative and policy instruments that helped shape them. We then offer a brief history of independent...
This booklet has been authored by Professor Anton Eberhard and Catrina Godinho
of the University of Cape Town’s Graduate School of Business.
Research support was provided by Lauren Hermanus and Jesse Burton.
It is part of the State Capacity Research Project (SCRP) - a group of academics from
research institutions at the Universities of Stellenbosch...
Sub-Saharan Africa is in urgent need of more power. Private sector investment is key to achieving this. Along with Chinese-funded projects, Independent Power Projects (IPP) represent the fastest growing sources of power investment in Sub-Saharan Africa. IPP investment flows show little concern for electricity market structures, but are more likely...
High-level energy policy objectives generally do not differ much between countries: most seek an energy
sector that will foster economic development and social welfare within the bounds of environmental
sustainability.
The South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPPP) is a competitive tender process that was designed to facilitate private sector investment into grid-connected renewable energy (RE) generation in South Africa. Part A of this report serves as a comprehensive handbook of the REIPPPP's design, implementatio...
Nature Energy 2 , 17005 (2017); published 9 February 2017; corrected 6 March 2017. In the version of this Comment originally published, Elvira Morella's name was spelt incorrectly.
Private sector investments in African power generation play an increasingly important role in addressing the continent's electricity supply shortages. Our analysis of investment trends in sub-Saharan Africa reveals some key success factors.
The South African Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Programme (REIPPPP) is a competitive tender process that was launched to facilitate private sector investment into grid-connected renewable energy (RE) generation. It has been an undisputed success in terms of capacity, investment and price outcomes. Since 2011 a total of 6,3...
Africa faces chronic power problems, including insufficient generation capacity, low connectivity, poor reliability and high costs, all of which constrain development. Power capacity additions in Sub-Saharan Africa (excl. SA) since the 1990's were minuscule. Historically, investments in the power sector in Africa have come mostly from governments o...
South Africa's Renewable Energy Independent Power Producer Procurement Program has run four competitive tenders/auctions since 2011, which have seen US$19 billion in private investment, and electricity prices of wind power falling by 46% and solar PV electricity prices by 71%, in nominal terms. Competitive tenders were introduced after an unsuccess...
Coal has been the world's fastest-growing energy source in absolute terms for over a decade. Coal also emits more CO2 than any other fossil fuel and contributes to serious air pollution problems in many regions of the world. If we hope to satisfy the demand for affordable energy in emerging economies while protecting the environment, we need to dev...
South Africa experienced severe power outages between 2005 and 2008. The power crisis is commonly explained by inadequate generation capacity, badly maintained power plants and insufficient coal supply. In this paper, we go a step further and examine the underlying reasons responsible for deficiencies in power supply at the level of the utility fir...
South Africa experienced severe power outages between 2005 and 2008. The power crisis is commonly explained by inadequate generation capacity, badly maintained power plants and insufficient coal supply. In this paper, we go a step further and examine the underlying reasons responsible for deficiencies in power supply at the level of the utility fir...
Infrastructure services such as electricity, water supply, sanitation and transportation are crucially important in our economies. Despite this importance, utility firms have found little attention in management research. This is surprising because the lack of adequate organizational structures, skills and specialized managerial know-how is an emer...
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to analyze how strategic renewal affects the reconfiguration of capabilities. In the context of organizational change in a large utility firm, we examine the evolution of the capability structure, and explain the emergence and persistence of capability gaps.
Design/methodology/approach
The paper uses an inducti...
Sub-Saharan Africa faces chronic power problems, including insufficient generation capacity, low connectivity, poor reliability, and high costs, all of which constrain development. The investment requirements to meet Africa's power needs are noted and strategies to address the funding gap are set out. The time for an ideological debate on public ve...
This study analyses the outcomes of independent power projects (IPPs) across Sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 20 such projects1 have taken root to date, concentrated mainly in 8 countries. A suite of country level and project level factors play a critical role in determining project success, chief among them: the manner in which planning, procurem...
African power sectors are generally characterised by insufficient generation capacity. Reforms to address poor performances in the 1990s followed a prescribed evolution towards power markets that would allow wholesale competition amongst generators and so lead towards efficiency improvements. Despite reforms being embarked, competitive power market...
This study is part of the Africa Infrastructure Country Diagnostic (AICD), a project designed to expand the world’s knowledge of physical infrastructure in Africa. The AICD is based on an unprecedented
effort to collect detailed economic and technical data on the infrastructure sectors in Africa.
This technical volume is intended as a reference b...
This study analyses the outcomes of independent power projects (IPPs) across Sub-Saharan Africa. Approximately 20 such projects 1 have taken root to date, concentrated mainly in 8 countries. A suite of country level and project level factors play a critical role in determining project success, chief among them: the manner in which planning, procure...
The power sector reforms that commenced in the 1990s led to the establishment of independent electricity regulators in more than twenty countries across Africa. The main purpose for these institutions was to create greater transparency in tariff setting and provide increased certainty for investors. At the same time regulators are charged with the...
Over its 17 years, the UN's Global Environment Facility (GEF) has allocated US $7.5 billion intended to develop and implement scientifically and socially credible solutions to key global environmental problems such as climate change, biological diversity loss and degradation of transboundary aquatic systems. We studied 906 GEF projects to analyse t...
Following earlier reforms in the power sectors of industrialized countries and emerging markets (e.g. Chile), developing countries were encouraged to unbundle their electricity industries and to introduce competition and private sector participation. This paper highlights the developments that led to how power sector reform came to be defined as a...
This paper documents South Africa's electrification programme from the late 1980s to the present. The primary aim of the paper is to present the reader with an overview of the policy, institutional, planning, financing and technological developments and innovations that resulted in more than 5 million households receiving access to electricity betw...
The South African President in 2004 stated the policy goal of universal access to electricity by 2012. This goal requires a significant adjustment of annual connection targets and electrification budgets, based on accurate knowledge of the number of electrified and non-electrified households in South Africa. Published data on the state of electrifi...
This study analyses the outcomes of African independent power projects (IPPs). Nearly 40 such projects have taken root to date, concentrated mainly in 8 countries. More balanced outcomes are perceived in North Africa than across sub-Saharan Africa (SSA), for reasons linked to more attractive investment environments, more robust policy frameworks, f...
This paper tells the story of Morocco's three independent power projects (IPPs), which were developed between 1994 and 2005. The three projects are very different in nature. Through the first project, the country placed nearly two-thirds of Morocco's electricity production in the hands of private producers, the Jorf Lasfar Energy Company – presentl...
This paper narrates the experience of Tunisia's two independent power projects (IPPs), which were developed as part of the country's electricity supply industry reforms. Although both plants use gas as their primary energy, the two projects vary in size, fuel supply arrangements, power purchase agreements and the legal frameworks under which they w...
This paper focuses on Egypt's three independent power projects (IPPs), evaluating the context in which they were developed as well as how the context has changed. Initially the Egyptian government planned a series of 15 gas-fired, steam cycle, independent power projects. The first three, developed by InterGen, Edison and Electricite de France (EdF)...
Over the last fifteen years the world's largest developing countries have initiated market reform in their electric power sectors from generation to distribution. This book evaluates the experiences of five of those countries - Brazil, China, India, Mexico and South Africa - as they have shifted from state-dominated systems to schemes allowing for...
Initially conceived of within the broader context of power sector reform in the late 1980s and early 1990s, Independent Power Projects (IPPs) were intended to relieve state utilities of the burden of financing new plants, bring quick, quality power and reduce costs for end-users. Although IPPs have indeed contributed to generation capacity in Tanza...
The power sector in South Africa is dominated by the state-owned, vertically integrated utility, Eskom. An Energy Policy White Paper and subsequent Cabinet decisions laid out a path of managed liberalisation. However, government still experiences ambivalence and doubts around restructuring. The "standard" model of power sector reform of the past de...
Public and concessionary finance for the expansion of power systems in Kenya dwindled in the 1990s. Meanwhile, demand for electricity services was on the rise. Private investment emerged to fill the gap with four Independent Power Producers (IPPs) established in the country by the second half of the decade. From 2000, the private market appears to...
In South Africa the "standard model" of restructuring was seriously considered but later rejected. This paper identifies the main drivers of reform, chronologically describes the process, examines the interests of different stakeholders, and summarises the outcomes of reform. The conclusion reflects on the reasons why the state is once again playin...
Eskom in South Africa provides an interesting case study to test the prevailing orthodoxy on electricity market reform. Eskom is the seventh largest electricity utility in the world. It is a publicly owned, vertically integrated monopoly, with the cheapest prices globally. Is there any rationale for independent regulation of Eskom or for embarking...
The South African electricity supply industry (ESI) is facing fundamental change. Initially there will be vertical unbundling and horizontal rationalization of distribution into separate regional utilities. In the future, following worldwide trends, there are likely to be further changes in structure, competition, ownership, governance and regulato...
The article describes an evaluation of the electrification, in 1987, of the Kasane/Kazungula area in northern Botswana. This project has been largely funded by donor grants. Although electricity supply has had significant beneficial impacts on the development of the local economy, almost all of the low-income households (over 60% of the population)...
The lack of adequate energy services imposes heavy social and environmental costs on poor rural households. The rural energy‐environment interface, however, is prone to oversimplistic analyses, especially in the case of the ‘fuelwood problem’, and to a lack of research. International experience suggests that deforestation is not necessarily an ‘ene...
Under successive nationalist governments, the nuclear industry in South Africa has received favoured access to state resources. Along with the synthetic liquid fuels sector, vast investments were made in developing local capacity to exploit indigenous fuels and to reduce reliance on fuel imports. However, South Africa never achieved full self-relia...
The high levels of inequality which characterize the South African political economy are reflected in its patterns of energy use and consequent environmental impacts. In spite of significant overcapacity on the national electricity grid, two-thirds of households do not have access to electricity, and rely instead on dirtier and less convenient fuel...
Provision of adequate water supplies is probably the most keenly felt need in rural developing areas. Much time which is at present used in collecting water could be used far more productively if water was pumped where this was appropriate. However, many pumping systems are inappropriate for developing areas because of their high maintenance requir...
In an attempt to compare the combustion characteristics of different wood species, an investigation was conducted to determine the kinetic parameters of burning wood samples. This paper reports on the different models to describe the combustion processes and the success of these models in matching the experimental data. Combustion of wood can be de...
The combustion characteristics of different fuelwood species were investigated in a single particle combustion rig in order to provide an absolute measure which might be combined with silvicultural factors when selecting appropriate fuelwood species. A pseudo first order rate constant scheme was most successful in matching experimental data and was...
Conclusion The key challenges facing the ESI in South Africa will best be met if the distribution sector is restructured on a regional
basis in order to utilise existing expertise and to retain it within the public sector. It is concluded that electricity can
be made available to most areas in the country if appropriate approaches are adopted in th...
The popularity of micro-computer based tools for passive solar design of buildings is extending to developing countries and the low cost housing market. This paper discusses their effectiveness by evaluating the levels of expertise required to run a typical programme. Some of the shortcomings of computer design tools are identified with reference t...
A new computer program, PVPro, has been developed for the simulation of stand-alone photovoltaic systems with battery storage. Energy flows are analysed on an hourly basis for an entire simulated year to facilitate the theoretical analysis or sizing of photovoltaic systems. Loss of power probability is incorporated in the analysis.
Energy usage provides one striking example of processes and conditions of development and underdevelopment in South Africa and the concomitant inequalities in fulfilment of basic needs. Access to affordable and convenient fuels increases as households shift from underdeveloped rural and peri‐urban areas to the developed metropolitan centres. The fo...
The demand for fuelwood from natural woodland and forests is fast outstripping supply and the need for developing woodlots for increased fuelwood production is more urgent than ever. While some work is being done on the silvicultural aspects of promising fuelwood species, little information exists on the relative combustion characteristics of these...
Knowledge of the patterns of the energy transition due to urbanization is important for energy forecasting and policy formulation. As energy transition is affected by a multitude of site specific factors, particular areas require individual studies. This communication reports the effects of urbanization on the quantity and quality of fuel used in B...
The growing depositories of fine and discard coal, produced as a result of increasing beneficiation practice, as well as the problems associated with the disposal of timber and agricultural residues, have prompted an investigation of their use as briquetted and pelletized fuels for domestic application. More specifically, the viability of introduci...
The collection of water for domestic use In rural areas is a critical problem throughout the underdeveloped world. Traditional surface water sources are often far from the household, provide poor quality water and are susceptible to the effects of drought or dry periods. Village water supply schemes that have been implemented in KwaZulu and Transke...