To make a difference among the energy intensive process industries, this dissertation addresses production planning and supply chain planning problems related to industrial energy management issues. The energy issue is turning more and more important from different angles, involving price as well as environmental problems due to climate change leading to political pressure on all energy users. The process industry sector is one of the largest users of energy, and thus important to analyse. Process industries are also capital intensive and operate on large and expensive process equipment, making it imperative to plan their production well in order to reach preferable capacity utilisation. Therefore this dissertation strives to locate the most important energy management issues for the long term profitability of process industries, and investigates the  symbiotic effects of including energy issues in production and supply chain planning. Three different studies at three case companies are carried out, analysed, and presented in five papers. The cases represent the process industry sectors: chemicals, pulp, and steel. Both qualitative case study methodologies as well as quantitative mathematical modelling and optimisation approaches have been practiced. The research questions are analysed from both an energy system and from a production process point of view, separately as well as combined. Energy is somewhat considered to be the main workforce for process industries and this dissertation exemplifies some of its most important dimensions in this context. Several prerequisites for putting energy management on the strategic agenda are located in a specialty chemical industry where the importance of introducing a strategic perspective on energy, the way energy is used, and the possibilities of increasing alternative revenue from utilising by- and/or co-products differently are pinpointed. Approaches for including energy issues in planning processes are also suggested in terms of a MILP model for the entire supply chain of a pulp company, including decisions on purchase and transportation of raw maerials, production allocation, energy mix, and distribution. Another example is presented based on the perspectives of economics of scale and lot sizing through economic order quantity principles in a steel company. By using real company data, energy smart approaches in planning and scheduling are developed with respect to the most important intersections between the production processes and their supporting energy system. The accumulated resource intensity and embedded energy could, and probably should, hence be more fairly  reflected in the product price. The research finally shows some possible impact with including energy issues in a production and supply chain planning model. By planning differently, production prioritisations can be done, and it is not only possible without any large investments, but also prosperous with savings on both energy and money within reach. To conclude, planning of production and supply chain has either a direct or an indirect impact on the energy cost-effectiveness of a company. This dissertation argues that such impact also exists in its mutual form, and is very important when the energy issues are large enough, as they often are in the energy intensive process industry sector. Decision makers should thus beware of the short end of the stick that might be  devastating in the long run, but also aware of all the possibilities that can bring success and prosperity when the future begins.

Emerging integration of renewable energy has prompted a wide range of research on the use of energy storage to compensate for the added uncertainty that accompanies these resources. In the Electric Reliability Council of Texas (ERCOT), compressed air energy storage (CAES) has drawn particular attention because Texas has suitable geology and also lacks appropriate resources and locations for pumped hydroelectric storage (PHS). While there have been studies on incorporation of renewable energy, utilization of energy storage, and dispatch optimization, this is the first body of work to integrate all these subjects along with the proven ability to recreate historical dispatch and price conditions. To quantify the operational behavior, economic feasibility, and environmental impacts of CAES, this work utilized sophisticated unit commitment and dispatch (UC&D) models that determine the least-cost dispatch for meeting a set of grid and generator constraints. This work first addressed the ability of these models to recreate historical dispatch and price conditions through a calibration analysis that incorporated major model improvements such as capacity availability and sophisticated treatment of combined heat and power (CHP) plants. These additions appreciably improved the consistency of the model results when compared to historical ERCOT conditions. An initial UC&D model was used to investigate the impacts on the dispatch of a future high wind generation scenario with the potential to utilize numerous CAES facilities. For all future natural gas prices considered, the addition of CAES led to reduced use of high marginal cost generator types, increased use of base-load generator types, and average reductions in the total operating costs of 3.7 million dollars per week. Additional analyses demonstrated the importance of allowing CAES to participate in all available energy and ancillary services (AS) markets and that a reduction in future thermal capacity would increase the use of CAES. A second UC&D model, which incorporated advanced features like variable marginal heat rates, was used to analyze the influence of future wind generation variability on the dispatch and resulting environmental impacts. This analysis revealed that higher amounts of wind variability led to an increase in the daily net load ramping requirements which resulted in less use of coal and nuclear generators in favor of faster ramping units along with reductions in emissions and water use. The changes to the net load also resulted in increased volatility of the energy and AS prices between daily minimum and maximum levels. These impacts were also found to increase with compounding intensity as higher levels of wind variability were reached. Lastly, the advanced UC&D model was also used to evaluate the operational behavior and potential economic feasibility of a first entrant conventional or adiabatic CAES system. Both storage systems were found to operate in a single mode that enabled very high utilization of their capacity indicating both systems have highly desirable characteristics. The results suggest that there is a positive case for the investment in a first entrant CAES facility in the ERCOT market. / text

Σκοπός της παρούσας διπλωματικής εργασίας είναι η παρουσίαση των κυριότερων μεθόδων παραγωγής ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας και η ανάλυση όλων των οικονομικών παραμέτρων ώστε να επιτύχουμε τη σχεδίαση του βέλτιστου συστήματος. Στο πρώτο κεφάλαιο γίνεται μία παρουσίαση των κυριότερων μονάδων παραγωγής ενέργειας. Αναφέρονται οι αρχές λειτουργίας και το κύκλωμα πάνω στην οποία βασίζεται ο κάθε σταθμός, ο βαθμός απόδοσης του κάθε συστήματος και τα πλεονεκτήματα και μειονεκτήματα αυτών. Αρχικά παρουσιάζονται οι ατμοηλεκτρικές, οι αεριοστροβιλικές και οι συνδυασμένου κύκλου συμβατικές μονάδες. Εξηγείται ο θερμοδυναμικός κύκλος λειτουργίας του Rankine πάνω στον οποίο βασίζεται η λειτουργία τους και οι προϋποθέσεις βέλτιστης λειτουργίας. Περιγράφεται ο κύκλος λειτουργίας και οι μετατροπές ενέργειας που πραγματοποιούνται στους στροβίλους και τα πρόσθετα μηχανήματα. Στην συνέχεια γίνεται αναφορά στους υδροηλεκτρικούς σταθμούς ροής ποταμού και αποθήκευσης ενέργειας. Εξηγείται η μελέτη για την δημιουργία ενός τέτοιου σταθμού, αναλύονται οι υποδομές και οι κτιριακές εγκαταστάσεις που απαιτούνται. Κατόπιν, περιγράφονται οι πυρηνικοί σταθμοί. Αναλύεται η πυρηνική σχάση, παρουσιάζεται ο πυρηνικός αντιδραστήρας και τα είδη του. Εν συνέχεια, επισημαίνονται οι ανανεώσιμες πηγές ενέργειας. Για τα αιολικά συστήματα μελετάται η εγκατάστασή τους και τα κύρια χαρακτηριστικά τους. Αναφέρεται η δομή της ανεμογεννήτριας, η αρχή λειτουργίας και τα διάφορα είδη ανεμογεννητριών και αιολικών πάρκων που βρίσκουν εφαρμογή σήμερα. Για τα φωτοβολταϊκά συστήματα, περιγράφεται η βασική αρχή λειτουργίας τους, το φωτοβολταϊκό φαινόμενο καθώς και η δομή του συστήματος. Αναλύονται τα συστήματα επίπεδων και συγκεντρωτικών πλαισίων που υπάρχουν και οι διάφορες συσκευές που απαρτίζουν το φωτοβολταϊκό σύστημα. Επίσης, περιγράφονται τα συστήματα που είναι συνδεδεμένα στο δίκτυο, καθώς και τα απομονωμένα. Κλείνοντας το κεφάλαιο, αναφέρονται τα γεωθερμικά συστήματα, οι κυψέλες καυσίμου και τα συστήματα παραγωγής ηλεκτρισμού από ενέργεια βιομάζας και παλιρροϊκής. Στο δεύτερο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζονται οι πηγές ενέργειας και συγκεκριμένα τα ορυκτά καύσιμα. Γίνεται μία κατηγοριοποίηση σύμφωνα με τον ενεργειακό πόρο, εξετάζοντας τα αποθέματα, τη ζήτηση και την παραγωγή τους. Δίνονται πληροφορίες για το πετρέλαιο, το φυσικό αέριο, τον άνθρακα και τα πυρηνικά καύσιμα. Ιδιαίτερη έμφαση δίνεται στον λιγνίτη, λόγω των αποθεμάτων που υπάρχουν στην χώρα μας, και παρατίθεται μία ανάλυση ενός λιγνιτικού θερμοηλεκτρικού συστήματος. Στο τρίτο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζεται ο τρόπος σχεδιασμού ενός βέλτιστου συστήματος. Για την παραγωγή του βέλτιστου συστήματος πρέπει να ληφθούν υπόψη πολλοί παράμετροι που περιλαμβάνουν την πηγή ενέργειας, τον τύπου του ενεργειακού συστήματος, την εκτίμηση του κόστους παραγωγής και των εγκαταστάσεων καθώς και την επιλογή τοποθεσίας. Αυτές οι αποφάσεις βασίζονται σε έναν αριθμό από τεχνικούς, οικονομικούς και περιβαλλοντικούς παράγοντες που είναι σε μεγάλο βαθμό άσχετοι μεταξύ τους. Αναφέρονται οι μέθοδοι υπολογισμού του κόστους συντήρησης και λειτουργίας ενός ενεργειακού συστήματος. Γενικά ως συμπέρασμα δεν μπορούμε να καταλήξουμε σε έναν κανόνα, γιατί η βέλτιστη λύση είναι απόρροια αναγκών, προτεραιοτήτων και παραμέτρων που προκύπτουν σε κάθε περίπτωση Στο τέταρτο κεφάλαιο αναπτύσσεται μία μελέτη οικονομικής φύσεως. Για μια ενεργειακή επένδυση είναι απαραίτητη μία ανάλυση δαπανών του κύκλου ζωής της. Μέσω της ανάλυσης αυτής αξιολογούνται οι συνολικές κύριες και λειτουργικές δαπάνες, λαμβάνεται υπόψη η «χρονική αξία» των χρημάτων και ενσωματώνονται οι διακυμάνσεις στην τιμή των καυσίμων. Η ανάλυση δαπανών κύκλων ζωής εξετάζει το κόστος κατά τη διάρκεια της ζωής του συστήματος και όχι μόνο το αρχικό κόστος. Έτσι είναι ευκολότερη η συγκριτική μελέτη των συστημάτων που θέλουμε να εγκαταστήσουμε. Στο πέμπτο κεφάλαιο ως αποτέλεσμα ενός οικονομικότερου οπότε και βέλτιστου συστήματος αναφέρεται η συμπαραγωγή ηλεκτρισμού και θερμότητας. Τα συστήματα Συμπαραγωγής Ηλεκτρισμού και Θερμότητας παράγουν ταυτόχρονα αξιοποιήσιμη ηλεκτρική και θερμική ενέργεια μέσω ενός ενιαίου συστήματος. Η παραγόμενη θερμότητα μπορεί να χρησιμοποιηθεί τόσο για θερμική χρήση όσο και για ψύξη ή κλιματισμό. Βασικό πλεονέκτημα και κίνητρο εφαρμογής της αποτελεί η αυξημένη απόδοση του συστήματος, έναντι της χωριστής λειτουργίας συμβατικών συστημάτων ηλεκτροπαραγωγής και θερμικής ενέργειας. Η εξοικονόμηση αυτή προκύπτει από την ανάκτηση και αξιοποίηση της θερμότητας, που διαφορετικά θα απορριπτόταν στο περιβάλλον Στο έκτο και τελευταίο κεφάλαιο παρουσιάζεται το ελληνικό σύστημα παραγωγής ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας. Το Ελληνικό ενεργειακό σύστημα βρίσκεται την τελευταία δεκαετία σε φάση σημαντικών αλλαγών. Η διείσδυση του φυσικού αερίου, η κατασκευή των διευρωπαϊκών δικτύων, η προώθηση των ανανεώσιμων πηγών ενέργειας και εξοικονόμησης ενέργειας και τέλος η απελευθέρωση της αγοράς ηλεκτρικής ενέργειας αποτελούν τα νέα δεδομένα του. Σημαντικές είναι οι επιπτώσεις των νέων αυτών δεδομένων στην ασφάλεια του ενεργειακού εφοδιασμού της χώρας, στην μείωση της εξάρτησης της από το εισαγόμενο πετρέλαιο, με όλα τα συνεπαγόμενα οφέλη στην εθνική οικονομία, στην εξοικονόμηση μη ανανεωνόμενων ενεργειακών πόρων, στην αύξηση της αποδοτικότητας των διαδικασιών παραγωγής και κατανάλωσης ενέργειας, στην προστασία του περιβάλλοντος και τέλος στην βελτίωση των παρεχομένων υπηρεσιών στους καταναλωτές. / The subject of this diploma thesis is the study of the types of electric generation systems and their comparative study. Initially are presented summarizing the basic principles of operation and the particular characteristics of each station. The energy systems being analyzed are steam cycle, gas fired, combined cycle, hydroelectric, nuclear power, solar, wind, geothermal and biomass systems. A brief description of fuels takes place presenting oil, natural gas, coal and its derivatives and nuclear fuels. Accent is given in the lignite and a short description of a lignite thermoelectric station is given. Then, the criteria are mentioned which are suitable for the choice of optimal energy system such as operational and functional costs, prices of fuels, types of generation system and technical and environmental issues. Also an economic study is realized. A life cycle cost analysis that evaluates the total owning and operating cost and takes into account the “time value” of money. Furthermore, the co-production of energy and heat as emanation of the most optimal system is included. Finally, the energy situation that prevails in Greece is presented.

La croissance de la consommation par les villes de ressources naturelles est un facteur déterminant dans l’altération de la biosphère. Pour comprendre le processus du changement du rapport entre la ville et la biosphère, transition socioécologique dans le cas particulier de la ville, nous avons caractérisé la ville comme étant tributaire de la ressource externe en termes matériel et écologique. On s'intéresse dans ce travail à la relation entre la demande en énergie de la ville, l'évolution du système d'approvisionnement urbain et extra urbain en énergie, et le bassin d'approvisionnement en ressource énergétique avec le cas de l'agglomération parisienne. Pour ce faire, nous avons d'une part tenté d'évaluer la pression environnementale effectuée pour la consommation énergétique urbaine, métabolisme urbain, en utilisant la méthode d'analyse de flux d'énergie et de matière (AFME). L'AFME s'intéresse à mesurer le métabolisme d'une société et inclut par conséquent la consommation énergétique technique (pour le chauffage, le transport, l'industrie) ainsi que l'alimentation humaine et animale consommée dans la ville. La consommation énergétique urbaine est évaluée par la demande énergétique totale (DET), indicateur de pression environnementale, dans le but de mesurer la consommation d'énergie primaire en amont pour l'approvisionnement en énergie finale du territoire. On essaie ensuite de mettre en parallèle l'évolution de la DET pour l'énergie technique et l'évolution du rayon d'approvisionnement de cette dernière au fur et à mesure de la croissance urbaine. / Increasing urban natural resource consumption and particularly fossil energy consumption is one of the important factors of global environment alteration. To understand the socioecological transition process for the city, we characterize it as a natural resource dependent system in material and ecological terms. Cities mobilize a technical system to draw the external natural resource. Therefore, externality is a fundamental character of urban metabolism. We focus in this work on the relationship between the energy demand of the city, the evolution of the urban and extraurban energy supply system, and the energy resource supply area of Paris. We used energy and material flow analysis (MEFA) to evaluate environmental pressure driven by city's energy consumption, urban metabolism. MEFA aims to evaluate social metabolism, therefore energy demand including both the energy for technical system and bioenergy for food and forage provision for a society. Particularly, total energy requirement (TER) refers ta primary energy consumption, an indicator to evaluate the environmental pressure. Furthermore, we try to view the energy demand for the technical energy increase of the city in parallel with its energy supply area tor three dates chosen during the 19th and 21th centuries.

The Swedish energy power system is in the middle of a paradigm shift where the increased share of intermittent energy sources place higher demand on the ability to regulate and balance the generation and consumption of electricity. Demand flexibility, which means that consumers can adjust their energy consumption, is a promising solution to manage the imbalance in the power system. Electric heat pumps in residential buildings are recognized to have potential to serve as a flexible load. In this thesis, an aggregated multi-family residential building model is developed to generate heat load profiles for a larger number of buildings which facilitate an assessment of the heat pump flexibility. The flexibility assessment is performed for a local distribution grid area with 174 buildings and an electricity price region in Sweden with 10 146 buildings with heat pumps. The flexibility assessment analyses the heat pump load deviation between a base load case and a case where the heat pumps receive an off-signal. The assessment takes into consideration seven flexibility parameters and is conducted for ambient temperatures between -20°C and 15°C. The thermal inertia of multi-family residential buildings facilitates a load shift with a duration of 4.4 to 9.8 hours depending on the ambient temperature. The maximal average power reduction for one hour of 10 MW in a distribution grid and 169 MW in an electricity price region illustrates the potential of using heat pumps as a demand flexibility solution in the electricity grid.

In order to cope with the changing climate, there will be a need for mitigating transformations of a scope, speed and magnitude that are unprecedented in human history, but the consensus- and market-driven approach is inhibiting this transformation. This thesis reviews how various discourses and debates on energy policy within Swedish governments have changed between 1974 and 2017, through the lenses of energy security and depoliticisation, and how a better understanding of these debates and discourses may inform the impending large-scale transformation required to meet the challenge of climate change. Some of the main findings are that (1) nuclear power and the result of the nuclear power referendum have been decisive for energy policy, and that nuclear power will remain of vital importance in the twenty-first century. (2) Energy has become increasingly depoliticised since the 1980s, ensuing the referendum on nuclear power. (3) The discourse on energy security has shifted towards market-based solutions: in the 2000s, climate change is to be mitigated through consumer- oriented solutions such as green certificates. Through privatisation, it essentially has become up to the consumer, deciding whether to participate in mitigation of climate change.

A automação já é utilizada como ferramenta para se obter a eficiência energética. Este trabalho apresenta e quantifica a potencialidade desta ferramenta com objetivo de diminuir picos de energia, diminuindo também a necessidade de construir rapidamente novas usinas geradoras de energia elétrica, regulando a transmissão e distribuição desta energia, aproveitando recursos renováveis e sustentáveis, tudo isso através de um sistema que já existe implantado em vários países do mundo e tem todas as condições de ser implementado no Brasil. Este sistema é a rede inteligente de energia ou smart grid. Analisa, também, a matriz energética brasileira, apresenta anomalias ocorridas, como apagões regionais e nacionais, verifica a necessidade de energia elétrica para o crescimento do País, propõe soluções para o sistema energético nacional utilizando inovações tecnológicas, como a implantação do sistema smart grid na matriz energética, sempre objetivando melhor eficiência e qualidade da energia, levantando o comportamento dos usuários em busca da implementação destas inovações tecnológicas. A partir de idéias que rompam os paradigmas atuais de busca de energia através de grandes obras propõe este trabalho a mudança de hábito e procedimentos da população, das próprias empresas e dos órgãos públicos brasileiros buscando a diminuição da utilização da energia especialmente nos horários hoje considerados como picos, ou seja, aqueles que demandam a maior geração, transmissão e distribuição da energia utilizada. Apresenta também a necessidade de energia elétrica para desenvolvimento econômico do Brasil, agregando todas as inovações tecnológicas aos processos atuais, buscando minimizar a possibilidade da ocorrência de apagões, ocasionados por ineficiência técnica da matriz energética ou por racionamento de energia. / Automation is already used as a tool to achieve energy efficiency. This paper presents and quantifies the potential of this tool in order to reduce power surges, reducing the need rapidly build new electricity generating plants, transmission and regulating distribution of this energy, using renewable and sustainable resources, all through a system that is already deployed in several countries worldwide and has all the conditions to be implemented in Brazil. This system is the intelligent network of energy or "smart grid". It also analyzes the Brazilian energy matrix, has deficiencies occurred as a regional and national blackouts, there is need of electricity for the growth of the country, proposes solutions to national energy system, using technological innovations such as the deployment of the "smart grid" energy source, always aiming for better energy efficiency and quality, raising the behavior of users seeking the implementation of these technological innovations. From ideas that break current paradigms of seeking power through great works this paper proposes changes in the habits and procedures of the population, own businesses and public agencies are looking to decrease energy use especially in times like now considered "peaks", ie, those that demand the greatest generation, transmission and distribution of energy used. It also shows the need for electricity to Brazils economic development, adding all the technological innovations to the current processes in order to minimize the possibility of the occurrence of blackouts, caused by technical inefficiency of the energy or energy shortages.

Floating offshore wind power is a relatively new technology that enables wind turbines to float above the sea level, tied by anchors at the seabed. The purpose of this work is to develop an economic model for the technology in order to calculate the total cost of a planned wind farm. Cost data are retrieved from reports and academic journals available online. Based on these data, a model in Microsoft Excel is developed which calculates the Levelized cost of energy (LCOE) for floating wind power plants as a function of several input values. As an addition to this model, financing offshore projects are described using literature study and by doing interviews with three major companies, currently investing in offshore wind. As a result, the model allows the user to calculate Capital expenditures, Operating expenditures and LCOE for projects at any given size and at any given site. The current LCOE for a large floating offshore wind farm is indicated to be in the range of 138-147 £/MWh. The outline from interviews was that today there is no shortage of capital for funding wind projects. However, in order to attract capital, the governmental regulatory of that market has to be suitable since it has a crucial impact on price risks of a project.

To reduce fossil fuel consumption and carbon emission in the building sector, renewable and low carbon energy technologies are integrated in building energy systems to supply all or part of the building energy demand. In this research, an optimal supervisory controller is designed to optimize the operational cost and the CO2 emission of the integrated energy systems. For this purpose, the building energy system is defined and its boundary, components (subsystems), inputs and outputs are identified. Then a mathematical model of the components is obtained. For mathematical modelling of the energy system, a unified modelling method is used. With this method, many different building energy systems can be modelled uniformly. Two approaches are used; multi-period optimization and hybrid model predictive control. In both approaches the optimization problem is deterministic, so that at each time step the energy consumption of the building, and the available renewable energy are perfectly predicted for the prediction horizon. The controller is simulated in three different applications. In the first application the controller is used for a system consisting of a micro-combined heat and power system with an auxiliary boiler and a hot water storage tank. In this application the controller reduces the operational cost and CO2 emission by 7.31 percent and 5.19 percent respectively, with respect to the heat led operation. In the second application the controller is used to control a farm electrification system consisting of PV panels, a diesel generator and a battery bank. In this application the operational cost with respect to the common load following strategy is reduced by 3.8 percent. In the third application the controller is used to control a hybrid off-grid power system consisting of PV panels, a battery bank, an electrolyzer, a hydrogen storage tank and a fuel cell. In this application the controller maximizes the total stored energies in the battery bank and the hydrogen storage tank.

The transition of the North African electricity system towards renewable energy technologies is analyzed in this thesis. Large potentials of photovoltaics (PV), concentrating solar power (CSP) and onshore wind power provide the opportunity to achieve a long-term shift from conventional power sources to a highly interconnected and sustainable electricity system based on renewable energy sources (RES). A multi-dimensional analysis evaluates the economic and technical effects on the electricity market as well as the socio-economic impact on manufacturing and employment caused by the large deployment of renewable energy technologies. The integration of renewable energy (RE) into the electricity system is modeled in a linear optimization model RESlion which minimizes total system costs of the long-term expansion planning and the hourly generation dispatch problem. With this model, the long-term portfolio mix of technologies, their site selection, required transmission capacities and the hourly operation are analyzed. The focus is set on the integration of renewable energy in the electricity systems of Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya and Egypt with the option to export electricity to Southern European countries. The model results of RESlion show that a very equal portfolio mix consisting of PV, CSP and onshore wind power is optimal in long-term scenarios for the electricity system. Until the year 2050, renewable energy sources dominate with over 70% the electricity generation due to their cost competiveness to conventional power sources. In the case of flexible and dispatchable electricity exports to Europe, all three RE technologies are used by the model at a medium cost perspective. The socio-economic impact of the scenarios is evaluated by a decision model (RETMD) for local manufacturing and job creation in the renewable energy sector which is developed by incorporating findings from expert interviews in the RE industry sector. The electricity scenarios are assessed regarding their potential to create local economic impact and local jobs in manufacturing RE components and constructing RE power plants. With 40,000 to 100,000 new jobs in the RE sector of North African countries, scenarios with substantial RE deployment can provide enormous benefits to the labor market and lead to additional economic growth. The deployment of renewable energy sources in North Africa is consequently accelerated and facilitated by finding a trade-off between an optimal technology portfolio from an electricity system perspective and the opportunities through local manufacturing. By developing two model approaches for evaluating the effects of renewable energy technologies in the electricity system and in the industrial sector, this thesis contributes to the literature on energy economics and energy policy for the large-scale integration of renewable energy in North Africa.