Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM), Mozambique’s state owned electricity utility, has announced that it is investing US$40 million for the installation of new solar and wind power plants through the Renewable Energy Auction Program (PROLER), in a bid to accelerate energy access in the South-Eastern African country.
Speaking during the “Storage and Grid Integration of Renewables in Mozambique” online event, the Director of Renewable Energies at EDM, Olga Utchavo said; “The company will, in the next five years, add to its capacity a further 600 megawatts of energy, including 200 megawatts from renewable sources to accelerate the process of providing energy to the entire population of the country.”
According to Utchavo, the EDM aims to ensure universal access to electricity by the year 2030. “The expansion will be done in parallel with renewable projects, with a contribution of 20 percent, to enable the supply of clean and sustainable energy,” she said.
The projects already carried out under PROLER, she explained, include the country’s first solar plant, in the city of Mocuba, in the central province of Zambezia with a capacity of 40 MW, the Metoro solar plant in Cabo Delgado province, completed this year with a capacity to produce 41 MW.
She also says that each of the new projects planned has an estimated capacity of 30 MW and 40 million dollars is required in investment for the projects.
“We have the challenge of building the first solar plant using energy storage in the city of Cuamba, in Niassa, with a capacity of 15 MW. We have the plants of Dondo, in Sofala, and Lichinga, in Niassa, which are the next to be installed, through PROLER. In the town of Namaacha, in Maputo, a wind power plant is being planned, which will soon move to financial closure and then to construction”, she said.
For her part, the representative of the European Union, Verlee Smet, proposed the development of an energy resource centre to strengthen the national distribution network and ensure the achievement of universal coverage by the end of 2030.
‘We will support the government to develop the National Renewable Energy Centre. This centre will be key to the integration of renewable energy by providing greater control of the balance between supply and demand to ensure the stability of the network”, she said.
Mentioning a study guided by the European Union in 2020, Verlee said that 108 Gigawatts of electricity storage is needed to maintain security of energy supply, to integrate the renewable energy needed to decarbonize the economy.
The representative of the German Embassy, Ingmar Kreisl, assured that about 100 million euros have already been invested in renewable projects in the country in collaboration with the private sector.
“At the moment, all our projects are estimated at 180 million euros. We have already intervened in the modernization of the hydroelectric plants of Mavuzi and Chicamba, in the province of Manica and we are promoting private sector initiatives,” he said.
