Mozambique’s Minister of Mineral Resources and Energy, Leticia Klemens laid the first stone of the combined cycle natural gas power station in Maputo, informed Club of Mozambique.
The station will be capable of producing 106MW of electricity, and will be complete in August 2018. State power company EDM’s Preseident, Mateus Magala, said the plant is the first major public investment in power generation infrastructure through the company, and it will cost $180m, reported Macauhub.
The government of Mozambique received $ 167m loan from the Japan International Cooperation Agency (JICA) to build the facility, at an interest rate of 0.01% per year The country will have 40 years to pay the loan, including a grace period of 10 years. EDM will cover the remaining $13m. As well as the construction costs, the financing covers the training of EDM staff in how to operate and maintain the equipment, as well as six years of maintenance services provided by the manufacturer.
The new power station will be the first thermoelectric combined cycle power plant in Mozambique, ensuring a more efficient use of the energy resource available in the country. The new power plant, plus the continuing rehabilitation of EDM’s hydro-electric power stations at the Chicamba and Mavuzi dams in the central province of Manica, will boost EDM’s own power generating capacity from the current 206MW to around 315MW by mid- 2018.
