Southern Africa to Market $4 Billion Interconnector Power Transmission Network

Written by Richard Finlayson, Senior International Editor for Industrial Info Resources (Sugar Land, Texas)--Nine critical energy transmission projects in Southern Africa, valued at more than $4 billion, will be marketed to investors by the Southern African Development Community (SADC), according to news coming out of the SADC heads of state summit in Victoria Falls, Zimbabwe.

High priority is being given to projects under development. These include the Central Transmission Corridor (CTC), the Mozambique Backbone Project, the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya Interconnector and the proposed Namibia-Angola Interconnector that will connect Tanzania and Angola to the Southern African power pool.

Officials from the Zimbabwe Electricity Authority (ZESA) (Harare) and South Africa's national power utility ESKOM (Johannesburg) are members of a joint utility steering committee that is charged to guide the $100 million CTC project. They have drafted terms of reference for technical and commercial teams.

The project covers the construction of power lines to increase the north-south transfer capacity of the Zimbabwean network from 200 to 600 kilovolts (kV). The corridor is critical to the development of the SADC power network, as most utilities in the region use the Zimbabwean network for their power-exchange traffic.

The power utilities of Zimbabwe, Zambia, Botswana and Namibia in the ZiZaBoNa project are working through the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), which completed the tendering process, and attracted the interest of a number of investors. The four participating countries are expected to finance parts of the project that fall within their national boundaries.

The Mozambique Regional Transmission Backbone project will consist of a double transmission line from the Tete province in central Mozambique to the capital city Maputo in the south and the SAPP interconnected regional power network. This will transmit power generated by new hydropower plants for the 1,500-megawatt (MW) and the 1,245-MW Cahora Bassa North Bank to regional markets.

View Project Report - 84500028

The Backbone project will have a 400-kV, high-voltage alternating current line (HVAC) to supply Mozambique and South Africa. The estimated cost is $2.8 billion.

Negotiations on a joint development agreement are under way between the Mozambican power utility and third parties, and a special purpose vehicle is being established, with negotiations taking place on the shareholding.

For related information, see April 25, 2014, article - Mozambique Adds 7,500 Kilometers of Power Transmission Lines, and September 7, 2012, article--Power Interconnector Links Spread through Southern Africa.

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