Funding obtained for Maputo-Temane power line – AIM

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Funding obtained for Maputo-Temane power line – AIM

1:58 CAT | 26 Jun 2019

File photo: TVM

The Board of Executive Directors of the World Bank last Thursday approved a total of 420 million US dollars in grants and guarantees to strengthen Mozambique’s electricity transmission capacity for domestic and regional markets and increase generation capacity through private sector investment.

According to a World Bank press release, the project will also benefit from a co-financing of 24 million dollar grant from a Norwegian Trust Fund.

This is the Temane Regional Electricity Project (TREP), which will support the construction of a 563 kilometre transmission line between Maputo and Vilanculo/Temane, in Inhambane province, and private sector financing of a 400 megawatt combined cycle gas-to-power electricity generation plant at Temane.

Temane is where the South African petrochemical giant SASOL has its gas treatment plant. SASOL extracts the natural gas from fields in Temane and Pande.

The Bank release says the transmission line and the new power station “would strengthen generation and transmission of power within Mozambique and in southern Africa. The project will enable private investment of around $750 million for generation”.

“TREP is part of the transmission backbone of Mozambique, designed to integrate its disjointed northern, central and southern power systems and strengthen regional connectivity to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP)”, the release continues. “The project is integral to the efforts of the SAPP to increase generation capacity and expand the regional transmission network, create conditions to provide access to millions of people in the region living without electricity, and reduce the carbon intensity of the Southern Africa power systems”.

“It is also fundamental to developing the Mozambican domestic power system, expanding energy access, and ensuring the secure, affordable, and sustainable power supply that is one of the key drivers of Mozambique’s economic and social development”, according to Mark Lundell, the World Bank Country Director for Mozambique.

“The Temane project is key to increasing opportunities for power trade among SAPP countries”, said Deborah Wetzel, the World Bank Director for Regional Integration for Africa, the Middle East and Northern Africa. “Despite the abundance of energy resources in the sub-region, lack of cross-border interconnections remains a major constraint. The full integration of SAPP countries’ power systems and more power trade could bring savings of 42 billion dollars in investment and operating costs up to 2040”.

Source: AIM