Page 13 - AfrElec Week 42 2021

AfrElec INVESTMENT AfrElec

China to lend Zimbabwe $1bn

for new coal-fired units

ZIMBABWE THE Export-Import Bank of China (China in partnership with China’s Sinohydro to com-
Exim Bank) has agreed to help Zimbabwe Power plete the construction of new coal-fired generat-
Co. (ZPC) cover the cost of building new coal- ing units at the Hwange TPP. These units are due
fired units at the Hwange thermal power plant to replace 920MW of existing capacity prone to
(TPP). breakdowns, Bloomberg noted.
According to Forbes Chanakira, site man- Chanakira told the news agency the Zimba-
ager for the state-owned utility’s Hwange Power bwean government’s strategy was to “ensure we
Expansion project, China Exim Bank will pro- improve the reliability of the existing coal plant,
vide a 20-year loan worth almost $1bn at a 2% while at the same time embracing renewable
annual interest rate. ZPC intends to raise another technology.”
$315mn for project development costs from its The Hwange Power Expansion project is a
own resources, along with and loans from the joint venture between Sinohydro Mauritius, a
African Export-Import Bank (Afreximbank) subsidiary of Sinohydro, and ZPC. The parties
and South Africa’s Standard Bank Group, he told have formed a joint venture, Hwange Electricity
Bloomberg in an interview on October 20. Supply Co., in which the Chinese partner owns
The total cost of the expansion scheme is a 36% stake and the Zimbabwean utility 64%.™
expected to reach $1.5bn.
ZPC will use the proceeds of the loan to work

Mozambique-Malawi

Interconnector contracts awarded

MOZAMBIQUE STATE-OWNED Electricity Supply Corpo- between Matambo in Mozambique’s Tete prov-
ration of Malawi Ltd (ESCOM) has awarded ince and Phombeya in the Malawi’s Balaka
several key contracts for a planned high-voltage district. Kaitane said on October 19 that the pro-
transmission line that will connect the coun- ject was now expected to be completed in late
try’s electricity transmission grid with that of October 2023, nearly a year later than initially
Mozambique, the Nyasa Times reported on planned, due to complications from the coro-
October 21. navirus (COVID-19) pandemic.
According to the newspaper, ESCOM’s Sen- The new line is anticipated to help Malawi
ior Project Manager Alex Kaitane announced overcome its serious electricity shortages, partly
the contract awards at a press briefing held on by giving it access to Mozambican supplies and
October 19 to update the public on the progress partly connecting to the Southern Africa Power
of the Mozambique-Malawi Interconnector Pool (SAPP) grid. (Mozambique’s Tete province
(MOMA) project. L&T of India has been con- is expected to become a major supplier to SAPP
tracted to do the MOMA construction work because of its vast hydropower resources.) In the
and extend the line to Phombeya, he said, while medium to long term, the connection will also
Sinohydro of China will handle the Matambo put Malawi in a position to trade power with
substation upgrade. Both of these initiatives other SAPP member states.
will be supervised by Gopa Intec International The two countries’ governments laid the
of Germany, he added. foundation for the first phase work on MOMA
“These [contracts] have just been awarded in in 2013, when they signed a power intercon-
the past month. The contractors are now busy nection agreement. They have also said that the
mobilising [and] moving into design phase, and interconnector may be extended in a second
then we shall proceed into the rest of the pro- phase in order to connect Mozambique’s north-
ject,” Kaitane was quoted as saying by the Nyasa ern and central grids via Malawi.™
Times.
MOMA will comprise a 218-km cable

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