Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi on Friday inaugurated a gas fired power station, with the capacity to generate 120 megawatts, in Ressano Garcia, on the border with South Africa.

The power station cost around 200 million US dollars, raised by the Mozambican company Gigawatt (owned by Mozambican and South African shareholders). The station has 13 generators, each capable of generating 9.5 megawatts.

The power will all be sold to the publicly owned electricity company, EDM.

The Gigawatt power station can supply 24 per cent of the electricity needs of southern Mozambique (excluding the MOZAL aluminium smelter).

With Mozambique’s recent economic growth of seven per cent or so a year, there has been a surge in demand for electricity. This cannot be met solely by the power that EDM purchases from the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi. Hence the need for gas-fired power stations, and even for imports of electricity from South Africa. While a gas-fired station can never be as cheap Cahora Bassa power, the price EDM pays for the Gigawatt power is 40 per cent lower than the price of imports from South Africa.

The natural gas is provided by the Matola Gas Company (MGC), and comes from a branch off the main pipeline that carries gas from the Temane and Pande fields in Inhambane province to Secunda in South Africa.

Source: AllAfrica