Joe Dinga Pefok
24 March 2008
Prime Minister Chief Ephraim Inoni has declared that the country will never tolerate the re-occurrence of electrical energy shortage.
Inoni was speaking at Yassa on the outskirts of Douala on March 17, while laying the foundation stone for the construction of an 86 MW heavy fuel oil plant named Yassa Power Plant.
The Yassa Thermal Power Plant is a project of the recently created Kribi Power Development Corporation, KPDC, a sister company of AES SONEL with the same capital structure (56 percent for AES Corporation and 44 percent for Cameroon).
AES Corp and Cameroon created KPDC in a bid to respect the terms of the 2001 Concession Agreement, which limited the energy production capacity of AES SONEL to 1000 MW.
The Yassa Power Plant would raise the total production capacity of the AES SONEL to 1019 MW, 19 MW above the limit of 1000 MW and thus a violation of the terms of concession agreement.
Noting that the project is expected to be completed in 10 months, the Prime Minister said with the additional 86 MW the thermal plant will add to the energy production capacity of AES SONEL, it could be announced without hesitation that 2009 will be a year without load shedding.
The Prime Minister disclosed that the estimated annual rate of increase in the demand of electrical energy stands at six percent.
Emergency Generation Facility
In an earlier address, the General Manger of AES SONEL, Jean-David Bilé, said since 2001 when AES Corp became Cameroon's strategic partner in the electrical energy sector, several investment efforts have been made by AES SONEL to check the crisis the electricity sector was facing.
"The company embarked on increasing the generating capacity, notably with the construction of diesel plants with 47 MW in Douala in 2002, an 85 MW thermal plant in Limbe in 2005, and a 13 MW plant in Logbaba in 2007," said Bilé.
He disclosed that the company has a vast programme for the rehabilitation of hydro and thermal plants as well as the renovation and reinforcement of transmission and distribution networks.
"To this end, AES SONEL secured a loan of FCFA 170 billion from international lenders, in December 2006," he said.As for the 86 MW Yassa Power Plant, Bilé said it was in May 2007 that AES SONEL resolved to embark on the project as an emergency generation facility.
He said this was due to the trends in hydrological conditions, increasing demand in electricity supply and the progress the company made in its scheduled projects. The General Manger disclosed that the government, among other things, set up a follow-up committee, released the country's contribution to the equity capital, sped up procedures to obtain the environmental certification and ensured the granting of customs facilities.
FCFA 52 Billion
The General Manger also talked about the Yassa Power Plant project's cost, as well as the sources of the fund.
"The overall cost of the project is FCFA 52 billion, of which 25 percent will be provided from its equity capital, while the remaining 75 percent will come from loans signed with a pool of lenders including the IFC, EIB, ADB, PROPARCO, BDEAC, FMO, and DEG."
He said while waiting, AES SONEL has already negotiated bridging loans to the total of FCFA 39.4 billion from some commercial banks in Cameroon.Disclosing that the power plant station will be constructed on as site of about 7.5 hectares, Bilé said the power plant will comprise a fuel storage station, cooling towers and a set-up sub-station.
The sub-station will be equipped with four transformers of 60 MVA each, and will be connected to Ngodi-Bakoko Sub-station by a 3 km 90 KV line.The General Manger disclosed as well that the project will create a total of 350 jobs for unskilled workers, electrical auxiliaries, engineers and worksite supervisors. He said the first four generating sets of the plant would be commissioned in January 2009.
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