MOZAMBICAN ELECTRICITY CONSUMPTION UP BY 15 PER CENT

 Consumption of electricity in Mozambique increased by 15 per cent in 2011, according to Augusto Sousa, chairperson of the publicly-owned electricity company, EDM.This was a much higher rise than in any other member country of the Southern African Development Community (SADC), The average rise in electricity consumption among the other SADC members was between two and 2.5 per cent.Sousa announced these figures on Wednesday at a business conference on energy in Maputo, organised by the Portuguese Energy Agency (ADENE), the Mozambique-Portugal Chamber of Commerce and the Portuguese Investment and Foreign Trade Agency. Peak demand for electricity in Mozambique has now reached 616 megawatts (a figure that excludes the Mozal aluminium smelter, which is not supplied by EDM). To deal with the increased demand for power, the government is working on a range of electricity projects, said Sousa.He announced, for example, that EDM is negotiating with the National Hydrocarbon Company (ENH) to convert an obsolete thermal power station in Maputo to run on natural gas, which could generate 70 megawatts.About 85 per cent of the electricity in the EDM system is purchased from HCB, the company that runs the Cahora Bassa dam on the Zambezi. The remaining 15 per cent comes from EDM’s own power stations at the Chicamba and Mavuzi dams in Manica province, and the Corrumana dam in Maputo province.“We must implement new sources of energy, such as small scale hydropower stations, wind energy and photovoltaic systems”, said Sousa. Other large scale projects on the drawing board include a second power station at Cahora Bassa, and a new dam on the Zambezi at Mpanda Nkuwa, some 60 kilometres downstream from Cahora Bassa. It is estimated that about 1,050,000 households are connected to the national grid. That is about 5.3 million Mozambicans, or 23 per cent of the total estimated population of the country in 2011. If the households supplied by isolated, non-EDM power sources (mostly solar panels) are included, the percentage of Mozambicans with access to some form of electricity rises to around 35 per cent. Energy Minister Salvador Namburete told the conference that Mozambique can make a substantial contribution to energy security in the SADC region, in Africa and even beyond Africa.But much of the country’s energy potential, he added, is not yet developed due to lack of investment. The development of new sources of electricity requires large sums of money – but it is not enough to generate power, Namburete stressed, it must also be transmitted to the consumers. The construction of electricity transmission lines, and of oil and gas pipelines, he said, needed the mobilization of resources on favourable terms in order to make economic activities viable, and ensure that power is accessible to lower income consumers. “Such infrastructures will allow an increase in the availability of energy to meet the short, medium and long term needs of economic growth and social development, and to export the surplus, thus contributing to an increase in transactions and the development of the energy market in the region”, said Namburete.The Portuguese Secretary of State for Energy, Artur Trindade, claimed that Portugal can help Mozambique attract the investments required to develop the energy sector. “Portuguese companies have a great deal of prestige in Europe”, he said, “because there are several projects in the European Union where Portugal has been in the front line, and its role in this area is recognised. This could help consolidate Mozambican projects from the technical point of view, and that will also have an impact from the financial point of view”.The Portuguese mission to this conference includes representatives of Portuguese banks and of more than 20 energy and fuel companies.