| SOUTH-AFRICA NURA
Number of customers of
NuRa in December 2008: 9,667.
In 1999 the South
African government announced a programme for rural
electrification because at that time most remote areas had no
access to an electricity grid. The consortium of Nuon and RAPS,
in which Nuon has an 80% stake and RAPS 20%, was chosen as one
of the concessionaires. The concession area of Nuon RAPS Utility
(Pty) Ltd, or NuRa, is in northern Kwazulu-Natal, one of the
least developed provinces of South Africa. In June 2001 NuRa
started a pilot programme, supported by a PSOM subsidy (Programme
for Cooperation with Emerging Markets of the Dutch Ministry of
Foreign Affairs/Development Cooperation).
Three energy stores were opened, from which 400 Solar Home
Systems (SHS) were installed in customers’ homes.
In May 2002 NuRa signed
a provisional agreement with the South African government. In
August 2004 this was converted into a 20-year concession
agreement for at least 8,000 systems in two years. In this way
Solar Home Systems are substantially subsidised by the South
African central government. This enables NuRa to charge its
customers a price that corresponds to the former average
expenditure on candles, lamp oil, batteries and accumulators. On
a local basis a number of district councils are granting a
subsidy (known as FBE - Free Basic Electricity) to make the
system affordable for the very poor.
The goal of NuRa is to
provide the electricity requirements of rural households, making
use of the Solar Home System (with different service levels) for
the electricity supply (for lighting, radio, television etc).
Items such as LPG are supplied as well. The long-term objective
is 50,000 customers.
The board of NuRa is formed by Bart Blokland (Nuon; president) and Coen de Ronde (Nuon). Sifiso Dlamini is the general manager of NuRa.
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