A 107.5 MW temporary gas-fired power plant was officially inaugurated on Wednesday by Mozambique President Armando Emilio Guebuza, at a ceremony held at Gigawatt Park, in Ressano Garcia, a town on the border with South Africa.

International temporary power specialist Aggreko developed the project, which would operate until July 2014, in joint venture with South Africa’s Shanduka Group.

The power, produced using gas from Sasol’s Temane gas fields, would be sold to Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) and Eskom. EDM would consume 15 MW and Eskom the 92.5 MW balance and both EDM CE Augusto Sousa and Eskom CE Brian Dames attended the inauguration of the facility.

The cross-border venture was constructed and commissioned on a fast-tracked 14-week delivery schedule, using containerised power generation units, shipped in from Aggreko’s Dumbarton, Scotland, facilities.

The joint venture also built a 1.2 km high-pressure gas pipeline, gas processing and depressurising infrastructure, a major substation and 1.5 km of 275 kV transmission line.

The accelerated deployment was necessary given that Sasol would reallocate the gas to other ventures after July 2014.

Shanduka Group executive chairperson Cyril Ramaphosa said the power, while temporary, would help meet the immediate needs of South Africa and Mozambique, and provided a model for public-private partnerships and cross-border collaboration.

Aggreko CE Rupert Soames said he hoped the project would be a “pathfinder for other countries seeking to make the most of their resources to optimise the supply of power across the region”.

Soames indicated that the London-listed group was offering similar “bridging” capacity in other parts the world and that he saw potential for a number of other projects across Africa.
 

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