DRC: Regional hydro project collapses

  1. Posted on Friday 26 February 2010 - 08:05
    Sanday
    Image of Sanday
    Sanday Chongo Kabange, AfricaNews reporter in Lusaka, Zambia
    A multibillion dollar hydropower project between five African countries in the DR Congo has collapsed as the country weighs another offer from BHP Billiton Ltd. The Western Power Corridor venture was to deliver 5,000 megawatts of power to Congo, Botswana, South Africa, Namibia and Angola.
    power station
    Reports out of Kinshasa say the venture will instead be dissolved.

    Congo’s National Electricity Society (SNEL) chief executive officer, Yengo Massampu said, “It was a big decision. It would be good for Congo to retain more of the project’s electricity for its own use.”

    Western Power, known as Westcor, planned to develop the Inga 3 project on the Congo river, the world’s second-biggest river by volume after the Amazon.

    Inga 3 promised 2,000 megawatts of power each for Congo and South Africa, as well as a combined 1,000 megawatts for Angola, Namibia, and Botswana.

    Congo is now in talks with BHP Billiton about using as much as 2,000 megawatts from a future hydroelectric project for an aluminium smelter in the country’s Bas Congo province, according to Illtud Harri, a BHP spokesperson.

    Harri said, “The future of the aluminium smelter project hinges on progress being made on the Inga 3 project and it is still very early days”.

    BHP is Africa’s biggest aluminium producer with two smelters in South Africa and one in Mozambique.

    Westcor was about to start a detailed engineering study on Inga 3 and the plant was supposed to start generating electricity by 2012 and reach full capacity in 2015.

    Westcor’s member countries will need to begin to look at alternative energy sources, including nuclear and natural gas as well as hydropower from the Zambezi river which runs between Zambia and Zimbabwe and into Mozambique, according to Bloomberg.

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