Maputo — The South African state company Eskom is in talks with the Mozambican publicly owned electricity company, EDM, for buying the output from a 415 Megawatt Karpowership power station, which will be mounted on a ship stationed in Maputo Bay.

The offshore power station in question will burn low-sulphur oil.

Eskom took its decision after it declined to sign agreements to procure power from facilities the Turkish company planned to moor off the South African coast.

"Discussions with Eskom, as one of the potential offtakers, are ongoing and an offer has been submitted for their internal review', said an EDM source, cited by the South African media outlet "News 24', adding that "the final off-taker is expected to be the export market due to the exacerbation of the power deficit that we are witnessing in some countries in the region, including South Africa.'

Karpowership in 2021 won a tender to supply 1,220 megawatts of power to South Africa. In addition to the environmental objections, a lawsuit and Eskom's demand for an indemnity against any adverse outcomes from corruption allegations have stalled the deal. Karpowership has described Eskom's demand as irregular and has denied any wrongdoing.

South Africa, according to official data, "urgently' needs 4,000 to 6,000 MW of additional capacity for its own power grid, with total power demand currently around 25,000 MW. The current quantity of electricity produced by Eskom cannot meet demand and as a result South African consumers have been suffering rotating blackouts of 10 hours or more a day.

The government has said it wants to buy 1,000 MW of electricity from neighbouring states, many of which are suffering outages of their own.

Currently, Mozambique has an installed capacity of 2,400 MW and could reach 2,800 MW with the conclusion of the Temane power plant, in the southern province of Inhambane.

With the Mphanda Nkuwa dam, which will be built on the Zambezi River, about 60 kilometres downstream from the existing dam at Cahora Bassa, it is expected that the country will generate 4,300 MW.

Plans for Mphanda Nkuwa and for a second power station at Cahora Bassa have been stalled for decades, because the only plausible customer in the region, Eskom, has refused to sign purchase agreements with Mozambique.

Eskom's refusal to make a firm commitment to purchasing more power from Mozambique is one of the main reasons for the current rolling blackouts.