Mozambique Energy Industry: France loans Mozambique US$52 million to build power plant

France has provided Mozambican state power company Electricidade de Moçambique (EdM) with a loan of US$52 million for construction of a gas-fired power plant, in Ressano Garcia, Maputo province, under the terms of an agreement signed Friday in Maputo.

The project is expected to cost a total of US$270 million, and is co-funded by South Africa’s Sasol New Energy, of the Sasol group, and by EdM. The project involves building a gas-fired power plant with a capacity of 175 megawatts in the Ressano Garcia district, which will be supplied with natural gas from the Pande and Temane gas fields in Inhambane province.

Finance Minister Manuel Chang, who signed the agreement on behalf of the Mozambican government, said that funding EdM’s stake in the Ressano Garcia Thermal Power Plant would substantially reduce energy dependence on neighbouring countries and consequently the country’s power deficit.

The French ambassador to Mozambique, Serge Segura, noted that the US$52 million would be provided as a subsidised loan by the French Development Agency and that the power plant would supply electricity at a lower cost whilst also responding to a surge in demand for power in Mozambique.

There is already a natural gas-fired power plant in Ressano Garcia, a town on the board with South Africa, operated by Scottish company Aggreko with production capacity of 232 megawatts. (macauhub/MZ)