Maputo — The planned electricity transmission line from the western Mozambican province of Tete to Maputo will be a competitive advantage to the country, in the context of the regional integration of SADC (Southern African Development Community), according to Energy Minister Salvador Namburete.

That new transmission line, Namburete told AIM, will be the backbone of the expansion of the national electricity grid, and an infrastructure of vital importance for exploiting the energy capacity of the Zambezi Valley, including a new dam on the Zambezi at Mpanda Nkuwa, 60 kilometres downstream from the existing dam at Cahora Bassa, a second power station at Cahora Bassa, and coal-fired power stations in Moatize district.

At the moment Cahora Bassa power still reaches southern Mozambique via South Africa. The dam was designed under colonial rule, with the needs of South Africa, not those of Mozambique, in mind. So the transmission line runs south from the dam town of Songo, parallel to the Zimbabwean border, to the Apollo sub-station in South Africa. Some of the power is then channeled to Maputo via lines owned by the South African power utility Eskom, for which the Mozambican electricity company, EDM, must pay a rental.

Both the line to the Apollo sub-station and the line from Songo to Bindura in Zimbabwe are at maximum capacity, said Namburete, and can take no more power. Addition electricity generated in the Zambezi valley will have to use an entirely new line from Tete to Maputo.

Studies on this new high voltage line are under way, on the assumption that it will carry around 9,200 megawatts.

Mpanda Nkuwa is expected to generate 1,500 megawatts, and a coal-fired power station at Moatize, owned by the Brazilian Companhia Vale do Rio Doce (CVRD) could produce between 1,500 and 2,400 megawatts. The Australian company Riversdale has plans for another giant coal fired station at Benga, also in Moatize district.

The existing power station at Cahora Bassa can generate 2,075 megawatts. If a second Cahora Bassa station is built, on the north bank of the river, that will add another 1,000 megawatts.

Electricity is one of Mozambique's most important contributions to SADC. The region currently faces an energy shortfall, which is expected to last until 2012. According to the projections of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), between now and 2012 SADC countries need to invest about five billion US dollars to produce an additional 6,500 megawatts.

Mozambique itself is in a fairly comfortable position in that it is a net exporter of electricity, and has large, unexploited reserves of coal and of hydro-power. Most of Mozambique's power will continue to be exported, since the country's entire consumption (excluding the 900 megawatts used at the MOZAL aluminium smelter) is expected to be no more than 650 megawatts in 2012, rising to 800 megawatts by 2015.

According to SAPP figures, the current total generating capacity in the SADC region is 52,501 megawatts.