The two companies announced, in a statement, that they had signed, on Wednesday (16), a mutual contract agreement that establishes the terms and conditions for the provision of an amount “of just over three million dollars” to the budget of the Office of the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Project (GMNK).
The agreement was initialed by the presidents of the board of directors (PCA) of HCB, Tomás Matola, and EDM, Marcelino Gildo Alberto, during the 8th Coordinating Council of the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy, which lasted for three days (14, 15 and 16 August) in the city of Lichinga, Niassa province.
“This amount corresponds to EDM’s contribution (…) and must be refundable until the project’s financial closure”, explains the statement, highlighting that “the development costs of the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Project are borne by EDM and HCB, companies mandated by the Government to develop and implement the enterprise, and must be accounted for as advances to the share capital of companies with a specific purpose to be created for its development”.
Mphanda Nkuwa will be the second largest hydroelectric plant in the country, after HCB, which has a capacity of 2070 megawatts. It will have an installed energy production capacity of up to 1500 megawatts and a 1300-kilometer high voltage line from Tete to Maputo.
With an estimated cost of US$4.5 billion, the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric project includes the development of a run-of-the-river dam, located 61 kilometers downstream of Cahora Bassa, on the Zambezi River.
It should be noted that the Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME), through the Mphanda Nkuwa Hydroelectric Project Implementation Office, announced, in May, the consortium led by Electricity of France (EDF), which includes TotalEnergies, Sumitomo Coorporation and Kansai, as the preferred competitor in the competition to select the strategic partner for the development of the project.
