Mozambique Energy: EDM power sales up by 78%

Mozambique’s publicly owned electricity company, EDM, increased its sales of power by about 78 per cent between 2015 and 2016.

According to an EDM press release cited by Tuesday’s issue of the independent newssheet “Mediafax”, between January and December 2016 the company’s sales of electricity amounted to 29.122 billion meticais (about 460 million US dollars, at current exchange rates), compared with 16.348 billion meticais in 2015.

In terms of gigawatt-hours sold, the increase was a much more modest four per cent, rising from 3,907 gigawatt hours in 2015 to 4,054 in 2016.

There was also a very substantial increase (79 per cent) in the amount of electricity that EDM exported to neighbouring countries, rising from 862 gigawatt-hours in 2015, to 1,541 gigawatt hours last year.

These figures were presented in a report given to an EDM assessment meeting held in Maputo on 12-13 April. The company management described 2016 as “a very challenging year, both internally and because of the macro-economic situation of the country. Nonetheless, substantial achievements were made”.

Gains made in sales of power were to some extent cancelled out by a huge rise in the costs of acquiring and producing electricity, which rose from 9.8 billion meticais in 2015 to 22.5 billion last year – an increase of almost 130 per cent.

The company also faced energy losses, the theft of electricity and the vandalisation of its equipment. It put the cost of vandalisation (usually in order to steal and sell cables and metallic components) at 24 million meticais last year.

EDM hopes to connect 200,000 new clients to the national grid this year. The company says it will deal directly with the manufacturers of electricity meters, and believes this will reduce the cost of acquiring the meters by 50 per cent.(Source: AIM)