Page 11 - AfrElec Week 01 2023
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Zimbabwe, Zambia need
$4.5bn for Batoka Gorge
ZIMBABWE ZIMBABWE and Zambia have approached a 2022 to assist in a programme for relief.
continental bank to mobilise funding for the Zambia’s minister of energy, Peter Kapala,
construction of a $4.5bn hydropower plant after confirmed the decision to engage AfDB. The
Chinese and US companies baulked on doing so Africa Report cited the country’s department
over the countries’ heavy indebtedness. of energy indicating that the neighbours have
In 2019 the southern African neighbours started retendering Batoka’s development.
picked General Electric of the US and China’s Zimbabwe and Zambia, like most countries
Power Construction Corporation to develop the in southern Africa, are short of electricity, thus
jointly-owned 2,400MW Batoka Gorge hydroe- they have instituted load management strategies
lectric plant on the Zambezi River, which forms that necessitate power cuts running for up to 10
a section of their common border. hours daily.
However, according to The Africa Report on However, Zambia, which is exporting up to
Friday (December 30), the engineering giants 480MW into the region, will honour its con-
have decided against securing funding for the tracts despite the local shortage, Victor Mapani,
project, scared away by the countries’ huge sov- managing director of power utility Zesco Lim-
ereign debts which they cannot pay. They have ited said, according to the publication. It is
now turned to the African Development Bank exporting the power at about $0.11 per kilowatt
(AfDB) to take over. hour (kWh), almost double the local charge of
In late 2020, Zambia defaulted on its external $0.06/kWh.
debt, now estimated at $17.3bn, whereas Zim- “You don’t need to stop the exports….we
babwe has not been paying its own debt, of don’t need to kill off our neighbours’ economy
about $14bn, since the early 2000s. The former is but we could ask them to step back and give us
advancing debt restructuring talks with its cred- back some of the power so that they start load
itors while the latter engaged the AfDB in April management,” he is quoted as saying.
Globeleq secures $72mn for
35-MW Menengai project
KENYA AFRICA-FOCUSED private power producer and part of the first phase of the wider Menengai
Globeleq has secured $72mn debt funding for complex, which is the second large-scale geo-
the 35 MW Menengai geothermal project in thermal field being developed in Kenya after
Kenya, through financing arrangements with Olkaria.
the African Development Bank (AfDB) as lead Construction of the project is expected to
arranger. commence during Q1 2023, once financial close
Finnfund and the Eastern and Southern has been reached. Globeleq will operate and
African Trade & Development Bank (TDB) also maintain the power plant once it has reached
participated. commercial operations in 2025.
Globeleq, which is owned 70% by British The project is expected to start in the first
International Investment (BII) and 30% by the quarter of 2023 once financial close has been
Norwegian Investment Fund for developing reached, the company said.
countries (Norfund), is providing equity, pro- Steam will be supplied to the project by
ject development and construction management Geothermal Development Company (GDC),
experience, it said. a Kenya government-owned company under a
According to BII, Globeleq is the largest pri- 25-year project implementation and steam sup-
vate developer, owner and operator of independ- ply agreement. Once operational, electricity will
ent power plants (IPPs) in sub-Saharan Africa, be sold to Kenya Power, the national distribution
with a generation capacity of more than 1,400 company, under a power purchase agreement for
MW in eight locations in six countries. the same timeframe.
Menengai is a greenfield geothermal project
Week 01 04•January•2023 www. NEWSBASE .com P11
