India's SAIL to increase coking coal supplies from Russia, Mozambique: Amarendu Prakash
Photo: O País
Mozambique’s publicly owned electricity company, EDM, expects to select the contractors for building the power line from the Temane gas fields in the southern province of Inhambane to Maputo by next October.
The project is estimated to cost around 550 million US dollars. Once the contractor is chosen work on the ground can begin next year and should be concluded by 2024. The tender for the line was launched in February.
Speaking at a Maputo press conference on Thursday, the advisor for operations of the EDM Board of Directors, Luis Amado, said the 400 kV Temane-Maputo transmission line will run for 563 kilometres. Three sub-stations will be built along the route – at Marracuene (in Maputo province), Chibuto (Gaza) and Vilankulo (Inhambane).
The project also envisages a new gas-fired power station at Temane, capable of generating 420 megawatts. The power station is budgeted at 700 million dollars.
“The project is part of the strategic plan for the sector which seeks to achieve universal access to electricity throughout Mozambique by 2030”, said Amado. “Furthermore, Mozambique is seeking to become a pole for the generation and transmission of electricity for the southern African region”.
Indeed, in the first phase 75 per cent of the power generated will be exported. Doubtless the main market will be South Africa, where the electricity company, Eskom, is incapable of meeting full demand.
The line will be 100 per cent owned by EDM, and finance is now available thanks to agreements signed in 2019 with Norway, the World Bank, the African Development Bank, the Islamic Development Bank, the Opec Fund, and the Development Bank of Southern Africa.
Currently some 34 per cent of Mozambican households have access to electricity. By 2030 the government hopes to raise this figure to 100 per cent. 70 per cent of consumers will be connected to the national grid operated by EDM, while the other 30 per cent will receive power from other sources (such as solar systems, and mini-hydropower systems).
Amado said that, during the construction phase, about 700 people will be working on the transmission line and 2,500 on building the power station. Once the work is complete, the numbers employed will drop to 100 on the line, and another 100 at the power station.
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