Michael James
Lagos — Azura Power through its pan-African baseload generation platform investment has invested in the 115 megawatt Tobene Power in Senegal.
The 115MW Tobene Power plant in Senegal, which was part of the Melec Power Gen (“MPG”) portfolio, now forms part of Azura Power’s pan-African power generation platform.
The new investment in Tobene also brings together Actis, Azura Power’s majority shareholder, with Africa50.
Actis and Africa50 are said to be committed to work with stakeholders to complete the conversion of the plant, to be fueled by gas.
Azura Power, together with Africa50, will also invest in the remaining assets in the MPG portfolio over time; and Africa50 is also expected to invest in future projects undertaken by Azura Power.
Azura Power’s CEO, Alan Muir, said “We are delighted to be making this investment in the Tobene Power Plant to help drive our growth in thermal power plants in Africa.
A key part of the investment strategy for Azura is to convert the Tobene plant from HFO to gas, as part of Senegal’s Emerging Senegal Plan (PSE), in order to drive down the cost of power as well as improve the environmental impact of the plant”.
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Adrian Mucalov, Partner at Actis, added: “We have invested over US$1billion across Africa in the electricity sector and we are deeply committed to the continent. We take our responsibility to the countries, cities and communities in which we operate extremely seriously and we are excited to be investing in a business that will directly contribute to the economic growth of Senegal.”
Raza Hasnani, Head of Infrastructure Investments at Africa50 commented “We are very excited to make this investment in Senegal’s power sector. It underlines our strong commitment to Senegal’s progress, and we believe that our platform is well-positioned to drive the conversion of the plant to gas.”
