Mozambique Adds 7,500 Kilometers of Power Transmission Lines

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--In the past five years, Mozambique has added more than 7,500 kilometers (km) of power transmission lines, including 1,471 km of high-voltage lines, 5,375 km of medium-voltage lines, and about 1,000 km of low-voltage lines.

The Mozambican government has invested $530 million in rural electrification, said Energy Minister Salvador Namburete. Speaking after a cabinet meeting that featured a report on electrification, he said that the number of district capitals with electricity had risen from 51 in 2004 to 121 today, out of a total 128. In 2004, only 7% of the country's population had access to power. This has risen to 40%.

"In 2004, we had 1.3 million people with electricity in their homes, and today 10.2 million people have electricity," Namburete said, adding that 6.5 million people get their power from the national grid and 3.7 million from solar power panels.

Mozambique now has the third-highest electrification rate in the Southern African Development Community (SADC) region, after South Africa and Mauritius.

The minister said that the country needs to invest a further $2.4 billion in electrification projects to ensure that power reaches the other 60% of the population.

To date, solar panels have been used to electrify 700 schools, 600 health centers and 800 other public buildings in rural areas at a total cost of $51 million. A further $400,000 was spent on small-scale water systems powered by solar panels, and three small solar power stations were built in the northern province of Niassa for $35 million.

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