The Mozambican Ministry of Mineral Resources and Energy (MIREME) has selected the consortium led by EDF, which includes TotalEnergies, Sumitomo Corporation and Kansai Electric Power, as the preferred bidder in the tender for the selection of the strategic partner for the development of the 1.5 GW Mphanda Nkuwa hydropower plant on the Zambezi river.
The project, which requires a US$500-700m investment from the partners, is expected to reach financial close in 2024 and to be completed in 2030. The consortium will build, own, operate transfer (BOOT) the power plant. The strategic partner is expected to be the majority shareholder and invest alongside the national power utility Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM) and Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), who are both expected to be minority shareholders.
The qualification process for selecting the strategic partner started in June 2022. The country received another proposal from a consortium led by ETC Holdings, which comprises the Zambia state-owned power utility ZESCO, CECOT (an affiliate of Mota-Engil) and the South African national oil company PetroSA. A transmission system comprising 1,300 km of 550 kV high voltage DC transmission line between Cataxia and Maputo will also be constructed.
HCB owns and operates the 2,075 MW Cahora Bassa dam, located 60 km upstream from the Mphanda Nkuwa project. 1,500 MW from Cahora Bassa is committed to the South African power utility Eskom under a long-term agreement, which terminates in 2029. Mozambique's installed power capacity was 2.9 GW at the end of 2021, of which 77% is hydropower and 16% gas-fired.