The Zambezi River Authority's Council of Ministers, which entails the governments of Zambia and Zimbabwe, has shortlisted three developers for the construction of the 2,400 MW Batoka Gorge hydropower plant project, which will be built a few kilometers downstream Victoria Falls on the Zambezi river.
The first shortlisted consortium includes General Electric and Power Construction Corporation of China, while the second one includes three Chinese companies, namely China Three Gorges Corporation, China International and Water Electric Corporation and China Gezhouba Group. Eventually, the Italian engineering company Salini Impregilo will also bid for the project.
The next steps include a request for proposals (RfP), which will be launched by April 2019 and the appointment of the winning bidder in September 2019. The construction will be schemed on a Build-Operate-Transfer (BOT) financing model. Upon completion, the US$5.2bn project will supply power to Zambia and Zimbabwe and will be linked to the Southern Africa Power Pool (SAPP). Zimbabwe and Zambia will share the produced electricity equally.