Cabo Delgado: Five districts expected to remain without power for longer

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Cabo Delgado: Five districts expected to remain without power for longer

3:04 CAT | 21 Jan 2020

Photo: Notícias

The five districts in the northern part of Cabo Delgado province will continue to be deprived of electricity for a some time longer due to difficulties in restoring the powerline over the Messalo River, which was swept away on 11 January.

The power line over the Messalo river was previously supported by two towers. The south tower came down in February 2018 and the north tower was swept away on the night of 11 January this year. The Mozambique Electricity (EDM) team on the ground is struggling to establish alternative support gantries in the flood-prone area.

The initial expectation was that the works would be completed today, Tuesday 21 January, restoring power to the 15,200 customers in Muidumbe, Nangade, Mueda, Mocímboa da Praia and Palma, but this is now unlikely to happen.

The damaged line runs from Macomia substation to Ouasse substation, and from there to the five districts.

Feliciano Massingue, Director General of Transmission at EDM, told ‘Notícias’ that the plan was now to set up a powerline along the road connecting Macomia and Muidumbe, instead of continuing to insist on following the initial route.

Massingue explained that a power line connecting Ouasse substation to the south of the province already exists, and that it would be possible to resolve the problem by installing an extension to the point where it interconnects with the line coming from Macomia substation, now interrupted at the river crossing.

Installing a power line on the road route, which crosses the Messalo river in three places, would take at least 30 days, Massingue says.

This is the second time that a power tower has been brought down the Messalo’s floodwaters. The first occasion was in 2018, and deprived the five districts of electricity for five days.

This latest power outage occurs at a time when EDM was planning to rebuild the line along the river route the end of the rainy season, but in a new configuration and using towers with specially reinforced foundations.

Source: Notícias