Name of the Project
Grand Inga hydropower project.

Location
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).

Project Owner/s
DRC government.

Project Description
The project, which will be located on the Congo river, is expected to have a capacity of 44 000 MW once all the phases are complete.

The project will comprise Inga 3, or Basse Haute – the first stage of the much larger Grand Inga project – and will be built in phases.

The first phase, the Inga 3 low-head project, will not require damming the Congo river. The second phase, the Inga 3 high-head project, includes the construction of the Grand Inga dam.

Five other hydropower plants will be built on the same dam, eventually increasing the plant’s cumulative capacity to 44 000 MW.

South Africa is expected to buy 2 500 MW of Inga 3’s capacity.

Potential Job Creation
Not stated.

Capital Expenditure
Inga 3 is expected to cost an estimated $13.9-billion to $17.9-billion to complete. The development of the project will be implemented through a public–private partnership.

The cost of the entire Grand Inga project is estimated at between $50-billion and $80-billion.

Planned Start/End Date
Inga 3 is not expected to be operational until the late 2020s. Following financial close and the award of the concession contract, constructing the plant is expected to take as long as eight years.

Latest Developments
Serious disagreements between groups of Spanish and Chinese developers may scuttle plans for the project.

After the Congolese government asked two competing groups – China Three Gorges Corp and Spanish consortium, AEE Power SA – to merge in 2017, the partners submitted a joint proposal in November last year.

However, they were unable to agree on the project’s development and the percentage of each party’s share. This was conveyed by the main company in the Chinese consortium, China Three Gorges Corp, in a letter in September to Bruno Kapandji, the head of Congo’s Agency for the Development and Promotion of the Grand Inga Project, or ADPI. The letter has been published in a report from New York University’s Congo Research Group and Belgium-based advocacy organisation Resource Matters.

The near-collapse of the current group of developers provides an opportunity for former DRC President Joseph Kabila’s successor, Felix Tshisekedi, “to completely re-open the Inga III dossier, in terms of its own capacity, as well as that of its investors . . . This ambitious project must be revisited to ensure that the Congolese population benefits from it,” the Congo Research Group and Resource Matters said in the report.

Neither of the consortiums were available for comment.

While Kabila appointed the Chinese and Spanish groups as co-developers a year ago, Tshisekedi, who assumed office in January this year, has yet to approve the consortium’s bid, and the partners are waiting to hear whether they will be granted exclusive rights to finance technical, environmental and social studies, as well as attract lenders.

The government, meanwhile, may consider scaling back Inga 3 to an earlier, 4 800 MW design that the Spanish and Chinese partners do not consider as economically viable. At a conference hosted by Congo’s presidency in August, Maximilien Munga, head of the Energy Ministry’s project coordination and management unit, said the smaller version was “underpinned by proven demand” and could be completed faster.

Key Contracts and Suppliers
None stated.

On Budget and on Time?
The Grand Inga project has been delayed several times over the past 40 years and the cost of the project has also been underestimated several times.

Contact Details for Project Information
Embassy of DRC in South Africa, tel +27 12 344 6475 and fax +27 12 344 4054.