Page 13 - AfrElec Week 33 2021

AfrElec
NEWS IN BRIEF
AfrElec
Group, Karpowership produces power from gas-fired power stations mounted on ships.
Its local unit, Karpowership SA, was in March named a preferred bidder in an initiative to fast-track around 2 000 MW of new electricity to cut down on load shedding.
EMERGENCY POWER
NNPC, CMEC, GE seal deal
for 50MW Maiduguri power
plant
The Nigerian National Petroleum Corporation (NNPC) said that it had signed a contract with China Machinery Engineering Company (CMEC) and General Electric to provide 50 MW to Maiduguri, Borno State.
A statement by the Group General Manager, Group Public Affairs Division, NNPC, Mr. Garba Deen Muhammad in Abuja explained that while the Chinese firm will execute the Engineering, Procurement, and Construction (EPC) contract, American firm, GE, would manufacture the equipment for the Emergency Power Project in Maiduguri.
Mr. Muhammad explained that the project which is an integral part of ongoing efforts to deepen the Corporation’s domestic gas utilisation plan for the nation’s socio- economic growth, was a significant step towards redeeming the pledge by the NNPC to intervene in the perennial electric power supply challenge in Maiduguri, Borno State.
NNPC also disclosed that as a mark
of confidence in the Corporation, the contractors had commenced movement of
vital equipment to site and started work on the project ahead of the formal signing of the contract.
The Group Managing Director of the NNPC, Mallam Mele Kyari, who spoke at the virtual event, explained that the Corporation through its subsidiary, NNPC Gas and Power Investment Company, NGPIC, decided to intervene in the Maiduguri power situation by undertaking the project which will be fired with Liquefied Natural Gas, LNG, and run commercially.
Kyari said NNPC, as a state-owned oil company and enabler organisation, was determined to boost power generation and supply to Nigerian homes through increased investment in gas-fired combined cycle power plants to produce at least 5 Giga Watts additional power for the country. According to him, “NNPC is therefore seeking the cooperation of all stakeholders, especially GE and CMEC to ensure timely delivery of the single cycle by December 2021 and the combined cycle by first quarter of 2022”. GENERAL ELECTRIC
HYDRO
Ivanhoe Mines extends
partnership with DRC to
upgrade Inga II
Ivanhoe Mines Energy DRC – a sister company of Kamoa Copper SA tasked
with delivering reliable, clean, renewable hydropower to the Kamoa-Kakula Copper Mine – has extended its existing financing agreement under a public-private partnership
with the Democratic Republic of Congo’s state-owned power company, La Société Nationale d’ Électricité (SNEL), to upgrade turbine 5 at the existing Inga II hydropower facility on the Congo River.
The extension of this financing agreement builds on the framework agreed in the memorandum of understanding signed with SNEL and announced in April 2021.
An estimated 162MW of hydropower is expected to be generated by upgrading Inga II’s turbine 5, which when combined with the 78MW of hydropower from the Mwadingusha facility, will give Kamoa-Kakula priority access to a combined 240MW of clean, renewable electricity.
The financing agreement was originally entered into in connection with the
joint rehabilitation of the Mwadingusha hydropower plant under the first public- private partnership with SNEL, where five of six turbines now have been completed. Under this financial arrangement, rehabilitation and upgrade activities are financed by Kamoa Copper’s holding company, Kamoa Holding, by way of a loan to SNEL, which will be repaid through a deduction to monthly power bills incurred over the life of the loan.
Kamoa Copper and SNEL, together with Stucky SA and Voith Hydro as EPCM and contractor, have commenced a technical assessment to define the scope of work and associated costs estimate. The work also will include upgrading of the terminal equipment on the Inga-Kolwezi transmission line to increase its transfer capacity by a minimum of 200MW.
“The Kamoa Copper management team continues to execute on our strategic plan to systematically expand Kamoa-Kakula into one of the world’s largest and greenest copper producers. The timely refurbishment of turbine 5 at the Inga II hydropower complex is instrumental in ensuring we meet the aggressive expansion goals we’ve set out to accomplish in the next few years,” commented Robert Friedland, Founder and Executive Co- Chairman of Ivanhoe Mines
SNEL CEO Jean-Bosco Kayombo Kayan added: “SNEL and Ivanhoe Mines Energy are confident that the Inga II project will enjoy the same success as our joint rehabilitation of the Mwadingusha hydroelectric power station. We all are keen on fast-tracking the return to service of unit 5 at Inga II to provide access to electricity to more people in the Democratic Republic of Congo, and to meet the power demands of the world-scale Kamoa-Kakula Copper Mine.”
The Inga II hydropower plant is located in the southwest of the DRC, on the Congo River.
Week 33 19•August•2021
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