DRC: a country with immense electrical supply potential
The DRC has the potential to produce 150 000 megawatts of power, approximately three times Africa’s present consumption, but although the DRC is host to 60% of Africa’s hydroelectric potential, only 7% of the country’s population has access to electricity. Lack of local demand has led the DRC to export to SINELAC (Société International d’Electricite des Pays des Grands LACS), Angola, Burundi, the Congo, Rwanda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
Untapped potential
The Congo River is the most lucrative source of wealth for the country. Second only to the Amazon River in terms of water volume, it stretches a distance of almost 4 300 kilometres. For electricity production as well as water, the potential of the Congo River remains largely untapped. The Inga Falls on the Congo River, specifically, has a potential generating capacity that equals that of all Southern African countries put together.
Improving generation capacity
There are plans to raise the generation capacity of the Inga hydroelectric power station to 44 000 megawatts by 2010, and the African Development Bank has agreed to supply funding of US$58-million (ZAR464-million) towards the modernisation of the Inga hydropower station.
The DRC government has agreements with SA’s Eskom to strengthen the Inga-Kolwezi and Inga-South Africa interconnections, as well as to construct a second power line that will supply power to Kinshasa. The Kinshasa city electricity distribution network will be managed by Eskom, while a potential feasibility study looking at how to make use of this electrical potential by exporting it to Angola, Namibia, Egypt and South Africa is also being conducted.
Electrical supply
The State-owned Société Nationale d’Electricité (SNEL), established in 1970, is responsible for electricity generation, transmission and distribution in the DRC. Other organisations generating electricity include SINELAC which was established by Burundi, Rwanda and Zaire to develop international electricity projects.
Information for this article was taken from vhost.mbendi.co.za, to which full acknowledgement and thanks are given.
Congo, Rwanda and Burundi advance energy sector development
The Democratic Republic Congo, Rwanda and Burundi are tackling their energy shortages by a number of projects, covering a diversity in energy sources.
In the latest move to progress its Grand Inga hydropower project, Congo has awarded AECOM and Electricité de France (EDF) the US$13.4m feasibility study for the Grand Inga site on the Congo river. The study, funded by the African Development Bank, will consider the development of the site and the associated interconnection transmission lines. It will be carried out over a period of two years under the direction of Société Nationale d’Électricité , the country’s power utility.
“AECOM is pleased to play an important role in the development of what has the potential to become one of the world’s largest hydroelectric power plants,” says AECOM President and CEO John M. Dionisio. “The Grand Inga feasibility study will be an important first step in the overall vision of developing a continent-wide power grid for Africa.”
The four associated interconnection transmission lines, which connect the plant to Nigeria, Egypt and South Africa (one through Zambia and one through Angola), will total more than 8000 miles.
In a separate development, more hydropower capacity is planned. Congo, Rwanda and Burundi will meet with potential investors next month to finance the construction of a US$500m power plant, said Gedeon Nizeye, director of geology at Burundi’s Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The three neighbouring countries will be equal partners in the construction of the 147MW Ruzizi 111 hydropower project along their common border with equal shares in the spoils. According to the director, work may start in 2013 with completion expected two years later.
“We have been united by the common problem of power shortage,” Nizeye said. Burundi has a current power demand of 300MW but only generates 65MW and has identified 10 sites for hydropower projects. If developed, the energy surplus created would help planned development in the nickel industry.
Meanwhile, Rwanda aims to increase its generating capacity by as much as 1000MW by 2017, according to Yussuf Uwamahoro of the Energy Ministry. It is seeking investors to generate power from not only hydropower but also from methane gas and peat. “Rwanda urgently needs power,” he said. “There are opportunities for investors.” The country plans to expand its national grid to cover half of its 10m people by 2017, a considerably leap from the present 110,000 connected. Its current generating capacity of 60MW could be supplemented by 295MW from hydropower, 300MW from methane gas found in Lake Kivu, 310MW from geothermal power and 100MW from peat, said Uwamahoro.
DRC: An investment of 42 million USD for Kakobola Hydroelectric power station
13 January 2011
The Indian company Angélique International Limited, which will take charge of the construction of the Hydroelectric Power Station in Kakobola in DRC, announced last Monday that its investment in this project will reach 42 million dollars.
The Democratic Republic of the Congo itself will invest 10 million USD from the 2011 budget in this power station, with a power of 9.3 MW.
According to energy minister Gilbert Tshiongo, the implementation of the project will meet the priority needs in electricity and drinking water of about 800,000 inhabitants in the towns of Kikwit, Gungu and Idiofa in the province of Bandundu.
The works will be spread over a period of not more than 3 years, and will start this month, January 2011. "They will not suffer from any delay" affirmed the minister, who was quoted by the newspaper La Prospérité.
The electrification of Bandundu will stimulate economic activity in this province, which is rich in agriculture and stock breeding.
Banks Meet Over £40bn Plan to Harness Power of Congo River and Double Africa's Electricity
By John Vidal Monday, 21 April 2008
An aerial view of the semi-functional Inga dam on the Congo River.
Seven African governments and the world's largest banks and construction firms meet in London today to plan the most powerful dam ever conceived - an $80bn (£40bn) hydro power project on the Congo river which, its supporters say, could double the amount of electricity available on the continent.
G8 and some African governments hope that the Grand Inga dam in the Democratic Republic of Congo will generate twice as much electricity as the world's current largest dam, the Three Gorges in China, and jump start industrial development on the continent, bringing electricity to hundreds of million of people.
But while governments and banks expect the dam to export electricity as far away as South Africa, Nigeria and Egypt, and even Europe and Israel, environment groups and local people warned that it could bypass the most needy and end up as Africa's most ruinous white elephant, consigning one of the poorest countries to mountainous debts.
The dam is being planned to exploit one of the largest major water falls by volume anywhere in the world - nine miles of rapids which lie 90 miles from the mouth of the Congo where the world's second largest river drops nearly 100 metres in just eight miles. Two hydroelectric plants, known as Inga 1 and Inga 2, were constructed near there in the 1970s and a third is planned, but Grand Inga is intended to dwarf them all. One feasibility study suggests the 40,000MW dam will be 150m high, and will harness 26,000 cubic metres of water a second, with more than 50 turbines each producing nearly as much power as a British nuclear reactor.
Grand Inga was proposed in the 1980s but never got beyond feasibility studies because of political turmoil in central Africa. But now it stands a chance, according to Gerald Doucet, secretary general of the World Energy Council thinktank, which is convening the London meeting.
"It is the greatest sustainable development project, offering Africa a unique chance for interdependence and prosperity," said Doucet. "It's much more feasible now than ever. There is a peace settlement in Congo, and economic and technical studies have all shown it is possible."
Grand Inga's prospects of being completed by 2022 are said to have risen significantly in the last year as countries, banks and private companies have found they can earn high returns from the emerging global carbon offset market and UN climate change credits. In return for investments in clean power, rich countries such as Britain hope to be able to offset their own greenhouse gas emissions against the renewable energy that dams such as Grand Inga would produce, and constructors are making windfall profits out of renewable energy projects in developing countries.
"The banks and the City of London see that Grand Inga is serious. The G8 countries are behind it because they can get UN clean development mechanism [CDM] credits to offset their emissions. Chinese, Brazilian and Canadian dam-building companies, as well as the World Bank, are all interested," said Doucet.
But advocacy groups said yesterday the plans ignored local people and could leave Congo with massive debts rather than a sustainable industrial base.
"The project would be a magnet for corruption in one of the world's least stable regions. Its enormous budget and large contracts could devolve Inga into a corruption-riddled white elephant. Inga will centralise a vast store of the region's electric and financial power, a development model that can foster tensions and civil wars," said Terri Hathaway, Africa campaigner with International Rivers, a watchdog group monitoring the project.
Hathaway said that the 94% of people in Congo DRC and the two in three Africans who have no electricity now were unlikely to benefit because the dam depends on exporting its electricity to existing centres of industry, especially in South Africa where there have been power shortages.
"As it stands, the project's electricity won't reach even a fraction of the continent's 500 million people not yet connected to the grid. Building a distribution network that would actually light up Africa would increase the project's cost exponentially. It would be very different if rural energy received the kind of commitment and attention now being lavished on Inga," she said.
Despite Congo having exported electricity for years from Inga 1 and Inga 2, access to electricity across the country is less than 6%, and in rural areas where nearly 70% of people live, it is only 1%.
"My village is 3km from Inga's power lines. They built a line almost 2,000km to the mines [in Katanga province] but in all of these years we have been left without electricity," said Simon Malanda, a community representative.
Doucet acknowledged that "there are huge social issues around Grand Inga that must be dealt with. Congo must benefit. If Congo is bypassed then the whole project fails," he said.
Investor Meeting Planned by Rwanda, Congo for $500 Million Power Project
Rwanda, Burundi and Democratic Republic of Congo will meet with potential investors next month to finance construction of $500 million power plant, said Gedeon Nizeye, director of geology at Burundi’s Ministry of Energy and Mines.
The meeting in Kigali, the Rwandan capital, will include the European Investment Bank, the African Development Bank and the German government, Nizeye said yesterday in an interview in the Ugandan capital, Kampala.
The three neighboring countries will be equal partners in the construction of the 147 megawatt Ruzizi 111 hydropower project along their common border and will share the energy produced equally, he said.
“We have been united by the common problem of power shortage,” Nizeye said.
Work may start on the project in 2013, with completion two years later, Nizeye said.
Burundi, which produces 65 megawatts of power against demand of 300 megawatts, has identified 10 sites for hydropower projects that would lead to an energy surplus if developed, he said. The extra power would help fuel targeted development in the nickel industry.
“We are on a serious campaign to find investors for the big potential in our power sector,” Nizeye said.
Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Hydro Electric Power Plant Closer to Reality.
October 18, 2007
Filed under: Africa,Africa Development,Africa Highway development,Africa Investment,Africa proposal,African,African highway,African Infrastructure,being responsible,Construction,Development,Electric transmission,Electricity,energy,Highway,Infrastructure,Investment,Mega Infrastructure,Pan African electric grid,Pan African Highway,Power,Trans Africa,Trans Africa Development,Uncategorized — Mr. Craig @ 9:14 am
Trans-African Development Strategies is pleased to announce that it has forwarded through it's intermediary in Brussels, to the officials of the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) its intentions and interest in building Africa's largest Hydro Electric Power Plant Facility.
Trans-African Development Strategies has indicated it is open to various forms of completing this deal and is close to formalizing an agreement with an International Consortium to fund this project in its entirety pending satisfactory agreements with the Government of the Democratic Republic of Congo. It is envisioned that this Power Plant will supply most or all of DRC's electric needs as well as those of several neighboring countries when completed.
It is also anticipated to request discussions sometime after the New Year or early 2008, with ESKOM concerning potential interconnections from this Power Plant to facilitate the full electrification of Sub Saharan Africa.
It is hoped that this project along with the Trans-African Development Company project for Road "rehabilitation" and the Trans-African Development Strategies 4-lane toll highway (to run from Central African Republic to Zambia and beyond along with other projects proposed) will be discussed with President Joseph Kabila on his upcoming trip to the USA October 26, 2007.
Selected 2008 Indicators forCongo, Democratic Republic of Congo
Key Indicators / Compound IndicatorsPopulation / 64.21 / TPES/Population / 0.35
(million) / (toe/capita)
GDP / 6.33 / TPES/GDP / 3.52
(billion 2000 USD) / (toe/thousand 2000 USD)
GDP (PPP) / 44.23 / TPES/GDP (PPP) / 0.5
(billion 2000 USD) / (toe/thousand 2000 USD)
Energy Production / 22.66 / Electricity Consumption / Population / 95
(Mtoe) / (kWh/capita)
Net Imports / -0.38 / CO2/TPES / 0.13
(Mtoe) / (t CO2/toe)
TPES / 22.25 / CO2/Population / 0.04
(Mtoe) / (t CO2/capita)
Electricity Consumption* / 6.11 / CO2/GDP / 0.45
(TWh) / (kg CO2/2000 USD)
CO2Emissions** / 2.83 / CO2/GDP (PPP) / 0.06
(Mt of CO2) / (kg CO2/2000 USD)
*Gross production + imports - exports - losses**CO2Emissions from fuel combustion only. Emissions are calculated using IEA's energy balances and the Revised 1996 IPCC Guidelines.For time series and more detailed data, please consult our on-line data service at
DRC's potential: Lighting the continent from Cape to Cairo
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja
2006-07-21, Issue261
As the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) moves towards elections, political scientist Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja talks to Pambazuka News about the strategic importance of the DRC. A strong state in the Congo would threaten western control over the resource-rich countries in the sub-region, namely, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe. Moreover, he argues, the DRC has enough arable soil, rainfall, lakes and rivers to become the breadbasket of Africa, and enough hydroelectric power to light up the whole continent from the Cape to Cairo.
Pambazuka News: What is the strategic and economic importance of the DRC, both for Africa and internationally?
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja: The best answer to this question is a quote from the late Jacques Foccart, the éminence grise of Gaullist Africa policy under Presidents Charles de Gaulle, Georgess Pompidou and Jacques Chirac, when the latter was Prime Minister under President François Mitterand. Asked by a journalist who waswriting Foccart’s memoirs about his thoughts concerning the DRC, the old man had this to say:
You asked me what was France’s interest. On this matter, there is no ambiguity. Congo-Léopoldville, Zaire today, is the largest country in Francophone Africa. It has considerable natural resources. It has the means of being a regional power. The long-term interest of France and its African allies is evident (Emphasis mine. Jacques Foccart and Philippe Gaillard, Foccart parle: entretiens avec Philippe Gaillard, Fayard/Jeune Afrique, Paris, 1995, p. 310).
What is evident is that France and its allies, African as well as non-African, do not wish to see the DRC become a regional power in Central Africa, and thus constitute a threat to French hegemony and Western interests in the sub-region. A strong state in the Congo will not only threaten French control over the resource-rich countries in the sub-region, namely, Cameroon, the Central African Republic, Chad, Congo-Brazzaville, Equatorial Guinea, Gabon and Sao Tome and Principe.
Moreover, the DRC has enough arable soil, rainfall, lakes and rivers to become the breadbasket of Africa, and enough hydroelectric power to light up the whole continent from the Cape to Cairo. While its mineral resources are so abundant that a young Belgian geologist declared the country a geological scandal at the beginning of the last century, the real scandal of the Congo include the facts that its uranium was used to build the first atomic bombs in the world and its wealth has since the days of King Leopold II been used not in the interests of its people but to the benefit of its rulers and their external allies.
Pambazuka News: Given this importance, how does this play out with regards the looming election?
Georges Nzongola-Ntalaja: The forthcoming election means more to the international community, which is spending heavily on it and even sending in European Union forces to supplement MONUC to ensure that it is being held, than to the Congolese people. The major powers of the world and the international organizations under their control would like to legitimize their current client regime in Kinshasa so they can continue unfettered to extract all the resources they need from the Congo.