DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: World Bank loan is to help DRC rejuvenate power grid, including world's longest power lines

Record ID: 453111

  • Title: DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO: World Bank loan is to help DRC rejuvenate power grid, including world's longest power lines
  • Date: 17th August 2007
  • Summary: (AD1) WESTERN DEMOCRATIC REPUBLIC OF CONGO (FILE) (REUTERS) PAN ACROSS INGA DAM ELECTRICITY GRID AT DAM
  • Embargoed: 1st September 2007 13:00
  • Keywords:
  • Topics: Energy
  • Reuters ID: LVA12K0EZLWM9YVT1BJSCCEFHTW9
  • Story Text: The World Bank has announced a funding project to rejuvenate the power grid in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The project will include the repair of the longest power cables in the world.
    Congo's electricity company, SNEL, is to be provided with a World Bank loan of 178 million US dollars as the utility battles to bring the country's power grid back up. The sector is in severe disrepair after decades of neglect and a devastating civil war.
    The country's power comes largely from the Inga hydroelectic facility on the Congo River. Two existing dams, plus another two that are planned, could make this the single largest hydro power facility in the world. But even the existing facility is badly run down and in need of repair.
    Inga is where a 1,700 kilometre power network begins, running south and east to the southern Katanga region, where it provides power to the country's crucial mines.
    The grid also connects to the southern African grid and is able to feed power as far south as South Africa.
    The World Bank's Sam O'Brien Kume says the early renovations will cost more than 300 million US dollars, but that there should be a significant improvement within a year.
    "The project we are doing is to help the government and the SNEL rehabilitate and modernise the big transmission system to help evacuate power from Inga and other power stations to the industrial heart of the country and eventually to be able to extend access to the majority of the population in the hinterland of the country," he explained.
    Less than ten percent of the Congo currently has access to electricity, despite the huge hydro-electric potential.
    Villagers like Cesar Afande live near to power lines, but have to rely on wood to power stoves.
    "You can see there are electric cables just behind my house but our village is not connected," he said.
    A surge in demand for energy across the continent has pushed regional power utilities to focus on decades-old plans for Inga as a possible source of renewable energy.
    The plan includes Inga 1 and 2, which are already built, plus a third, Inga 3 and then a fourth, Grand Inga. Inga 1 and 2 have a combined capacity of just over 1,700 megawatts, but output is currently little over 800 megawatts.
    Inga 3 would have a capacity of 3,000 megawatts, while Grand Inga would have a capacity of an impressive 39,000 megawatts.
    That power could light up a swathe of Africa from the Cape to Cairo, Inga dam technician Boniface Mumbim Atalatala said. "In the future we hope to supply southern Africa, what we call the western corridor, we could also supply North Africa and parts of central Africa," Atalatala said.
    But for now, the focus is on getting what exists back up to full capacity, in order to help Congo back on to its feet. The country's mineral reserves include gold, diamonds, some ten percent of the world's copper reserves and more than a third of the world's cobalt. But a reliable energy supply is essential if the mining sector is to be revived.
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