Africa plans new Congo River power generatorAfrica plans new Congo River power generator

JOHANNESBURG – Five African states launched a project on Friday to put a new 3 500 MW power station on the mighty Congo River and run power lines through Angola and Namibia to head off looming shortages and spur development.

Energy ministers from across the 13-member Southern African Development Community (SADC) also agreed to invite international donors to an investment conference next year to raise funds to boost the region’s power generating and transmission capacity. Ministers and power utilities from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa signed a memorandum of understanding to create a company called Westcor to install a third hydropower station at Inga on the Congo River and the “Western Corridor” of transmission lines running south.Proposals exist for a much bigger 40 000 MW “Grand Inga” power station across the main flow of the Congo river – whose flow of water is second only to the Amazon and which has fairly consistent year-round flow thanks to straddling the Equator.Westcor will be based in Botswana, but be shared equally among the five countries.Three Westcor subsidiaries will run its generation, transmission and telecoms operations – the latter based on fibre optic cables run alongside the new power lines.But the ministers said they would invite power utilities from across the SADC region, as well as individual and corporate private investors, to take up equity stakes in the generation subsidiary.Power demand in South Africa is set to outpace current supply by around 2007, and the region’s biggest generator, South Africa’s Eskom, is busy rehabilitating mothballed coal-fired stations as well as building new ones.South Africa announced plans last week to spend N$165 billion on its power and transport sectors in the coming five years including 5000 MW of new coal, hydro and gas generation capacity.South Africa’s Minerals and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said the new Inga project and transmission lines would cost around US$$5 billion and “must be finalised by 2011”.The two smaller existing hydropower plants at Inga, 250 km downstream from the Congolese capital Kinshasa, have for years provided power to mines and other industry in Congo’s mineral-rich southern Katanga province, over the border into Zambia’s Copperbelt and ultimately as far as South Africa.But years of neglect in war-ravaged Congo have left most of Inga’s turbines out of action and power output from Inga is a fraction of installed capacity.Congolese Energy Minister Kalema Losona said he hoped to finalise a public-private partnership to rehabilitate the Inga I and II plants.SADC ministers said in a joint communique they would convene a conference in Namibia in May or June 2005 to raise funding for power generation and transmission projects across the power-hungry region.-Nampa-ReutersMinisters and power utilities from the Democratic Republic of Congo, Angola, Namibia, Botswana and South Africa signed a memorandum of understanding to create a company called Westcor to install a third hydropower station at Inga on the Congo River and the “Western Corridor” of transmission lines running south.Proposals exist for a much bigger 40 000 MW “Grand Inga” power station across the main flow of the Congo river – whose flow of water is second only to the Amazon and which has fairly consistent year-round flow thanks to straddling the Equator.Westcor will be based in Botswana, but be shared equally among the five countries.Three Westcor subsidiaries will run its generation, transmission and telecoms operations – the latter based on fibre optic cables run alongside the new power lines.But the ministers said they would invite power utilities from across the SADC region, as well as individual and corporate private investors, to take up equity stakes in the generation subsidiary.Power demand in South Africa is set to outpace current supply by around 2007, and the region’s biggest generator, South Africa’s Eskom, is busy rehabilitating mothballed coal-fired stations as well as building new ones.South Africa announced plans last week to spend N$165 billion on its power and transport sectors in the coming five years including 5000 MW of new coal, hydro and gas generation capacity.South Africa’s Minerals and Energy Affairs Minister Phumzile Mlambo-Ngcuka said the new Inga project and transmission lines would cost around US$$5 billion and “must be finalised by 2011”.The two smaller existing hydropower plants at Inga, 250 km downstream from the Congolese capital Kinshasa, have for years provided power to mines and other industry in Congo’s mineral-rich southern Katanga province, over the border into Zambia’s Copperbelt and ultimately as far as South Africa.But years of neglect in war-ravaged Congo have left most of Inga’s turbines out of action and power output from Inga is a fraction of installed capacity.Congolese Energy Minister Kalema Losona said he hoped to finalise a public-private partnership to rehabilitate the Inga I and II plants.SADC ministers said in a joint communique they would convene a conference in Namibia in May or June 2005 to raise funding for power generation and transmission projects across the power-hungry region.-Nampa-Reuters