22 September 2014, Cape Town — The South African government has sealed a purchase order with the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) to buy electricity in six years time.
It is expected that phase One of the Grand Inga (Inga Project 3) in western DRC will be completed. South Africa wants 2500MW. There are six phases involved in the whole project.
Tina Joemat-Pettersson, the South African energy minister said last week, “We can’t wake up in 2020 and say we want power. We will have missed the boat and that energy will have been sold.”
Her Congolese counterpart, Bruno Kalala said the deal was a ‘key step’ in the development of the project. He said a ‘reliable purchaser’ was needed to advance the project. Grand Inga could produce up to 40,000 MW of electricity, over twice the power generation of Three Gorges Dam in China, and more than a third of the total electricity currently produced in Africa.
– East African Business Week
