Search results

JCM Matswani Solar Corporation Ltd signed a 20-year power purchase agreement (PPA) with Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi Ltd (Escom) on 13 September for the 60MW Salima solar photovoltaic project. The project is being developed by InfraCo Africa, part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group (PIDG), and a fund managed by JCM Power and Matswani Capital. InfraCo has committed $2.6m to development and the project received a $320,000 grant from the Technical Assistance Facility, also part of the PIDG.

Project company JCM Matswani Solar Corp is seeking expressions of interest (EoIs) from potential engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) and operations and maintenance (O&M) contractors for the 40MW Salima solar photovoltaic project. JCM Matswani is owned by Canada’s JCM Power, InfraCo Africa Ltd – part of the Private Infrastructure Development Group – and South African investment company Matswani Capital Ltd.

Brazil’s Vale SA and partner Japan’s Mitsui & Co Ltd have signed a $2.73bn project finance deal for the Nacala corridor rail and port project connecting the Moatize coal mine to Nacala port in Mozambique. Vale said in a securities filing the deal included a loan of $1.03bn from Japan Bank for International Cooperation and another $1bn from a syndicate of financial institutions.

On 10 October 2017, Dubai-based Phanes Group will announce a shortlist of candidates in its Solar Incubator, which will evaluate sub-Saharan solar PV projects with strong corporate social responsibility characteristics, and establish a partnership to take the winners through to financial close. The company, which is developing solar plants in Malawi, Nigeria and elsewhere, has invited submissions from developers with 10MW-100MW projects by 1 October.“The reason we have created this initiative is to help projects succeed that would otherwise not be realised,” chief executive Martin Haupts told African Energy.

Japan’s Mitsubishi Corporation is to begin construction of the Tedzani IV hydropower plant on the Shire River this October, following the signing on 18 July of a contract with the newly established Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (Egenco). The 18MW expansion of the run-of-river plant, with the addition of a new powerhouse and individual water intake, is due to be commissioned in 2020. The project will be carried out in partnership with Turkey’s Calik Enerji as exclusive subcontractor and with the support of Tokyo Electric Power Services as consultant.

RakGas has advertised for a consultant to carry out geological mapping of blocks 4 and 5. The consultant will conduct a detailed site mapping of rock and sedimentary outcrops and their structures using various technical inputs. The work is expected to take two months from contract signing. A tender notice was published in Malawi’s The Nation on 15 July, and bids were due by 19 July. Block 4 covers the southern half of Lake Malawi, including part of Lake Malawi National Park, one of Malawi’s two UN World Heritage Sites, while Block 5 includes Lake Malombe and Lake Chilwa.

Prospects for revival of a project to build an interconnector between Mozambique and Malawi have been boosted with the presentation of an economic feasibility study for the scheme in Maputo on 27 June. The project dates back to 1998 when an initial memorandum was signed. Studies were completed and financing put together for the project in 2007, but it ran into political difficulties as relations between the two states soured in the later part of Bingu wa Mutharika’s presidency.

The formal process of awarding four solar photovoltaic (PV) projects with combined capacity of 70MW at Salima, Nkhotakota, Lilongwe and Golomoti was suspended on 12 June following a formal application for review by one of the bidders. “We are hopeful that this matter will be sorted within 14 days and the suspension will be uplifted in order to make progress with these transactions,” Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom) spokeswoman Kitty Chingota told African Energy.

Malawi’s Anti-Corruption Bureau has launched an investigation into whether money irregularly changed hands during the signing of production-sharing agreements with Rakgas on blocks 4 and 5 eight days before the 2014 elections. The probe was requested by Malawian civil society organisations and by Oxfam, which published a report in January titled Malawi’s Troubled Oil Sector: Licenses, Contracts and their Implications.

Rehabilitation and repowering of the Nkula A hydropower plant on the Shire River is to begin in June, the newly established state power producer Electricity Generation Company of Malawi (Egenco) has announced. The upgrading works, which are scheduled to be completed by July 2018, will add 12MW to the current installed capacity of 24MW and extend the operating lifespan of the 50-year-old run-of-river station.

The government has incorporated a new state-owned company, the Electricity Generation Company (Egenco), which will take over generation assets from the Electricity Supply Corporation of Malawi (Escom). Department of Energy Affairs deputy director Joseph Kalowekamo told African Energy Escom would retain responsibility for transmission and distribution as well as the trading of electricity across the grid through a not-yet-established single buyer. A system and market operator will be established within Escom. The new company is the latest development in a country that, after years of delay, has begun to make significant strides towards reforming its moribund power sector with new legislation and serious moves towards developing independent power producers (IPPs).

Finland’s Nocart has signed contracts worth €12.9m ($14.6m) to supply two off-grid power plants in Malawi and one in Nigeria. In Malawi, the company will provide a 2MW solar-diesel hybrid plant with 1MWh energy storage and a 4MW solar-diesel hybrid with 2MWh storage. The Nigerian plant will be a 1MW hybrid using solar power and sawdust. Nocart uses a software-controlled power management unit that manages generation from multiple sources and technologies to provide a stable power supply.

The US Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC) has contracted a consortium headed by Andritz Hydro to refurbish the 38MW Nkula A hydropower station on the Shire River on behalf of state-owned power utility Escom. Andritz announced on 22 December that its scope of supply included modernisation of the intake structures and gates, penstocks and power house, new turbine runners and non-rotating turbine components, generators, as well as a completely new high-voltage hybrid switching station, a supervisory control and data acquisition system, and related civil work. The refurbished plant is expected to resume operation in 2018.

Malawi is completing the sign-up steps to become an Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI) candidate and is expected to present an application to the EITI Board by 30 June. The EITI is part of the government’s commitment to develop the oil and mining sector in a manner that generates revenue to the state and benefits the citizens of Malawi.In a state of the nation speech to parliament on 5 May, President Peter Mutharika said: “In view of the commitment by government to enhance transparency in the mining sector, government will join the EITI to promote revenue transparency.

The US Trade and Development Agency (USTDA) announced on 27 March that it had awarded a grant to the Ministry of Natural Resources, Energy and Mining to fund a feasibility study for a hydropower project on the Luweya River. The study for a 15MW run-of-river system in the Nkhata Bay District of Malawi’s Northern Region will be carried out by Texas-based Water Wheel International. The project could be expanded to 35MW in a second phase.