JOHANNESBURG -
Brtiain's Aggreko and its local joint-venture partner Shanduka Group
will supply 107 megawatts of gas-fired power to Mozambique and South
Africa, the company said on Wednesday, helping to plug electricity
shortages in the region.
Countries in southern Africa have been struggling to meet
fast-rising demand for power, with the next two years seen as
particularly tight until new power plants start coming online.
South Africa's national grid nearly collapsed in 2008, forcing
mines and smelters to shut for days. The crisis cost Africa's biggest
economy billions of dollars in lost output and hit its neighbours who
depend on South Africa for power supply.
Aggreko, the world's biggest temporary power provider, has signed
power purchase deals with South African power utility Eskom and
Mozambique's Electricidade de Mocambique (EDM) to supply electricity
from the third quarter of this year until July 2014. Eskom will buy 92
MW and EDM the remaining 15 MW.
Rupert Soames, Aggreko's chief executive, said he saw opportunities to replicate the project in the region.
Aggreko could sell power to utilities or directly to private customers, including mines.
As part of the Eskom/EDM deal, valued at $250 million over two
years, Aggreko will build gas interconnections, a substation and a 275
kV transmission line. Part of the infrastructure will go to EDM at the
end of the contract.
The gas used in the plant, to be based at the Ressano Garcia
border between South Africa and Mozambique, is part of gas given to
Mozambique as a royalty by petrochemicals group Sasol, which is
operating the onshore Pande/Temane gas fields.
Soames said the gas-fired power was more expensive than
electricity generated by Eskom's own coal-fired power plants, but
declined to give details.
Source: Reuters
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