The Copperbelt Energy Corporations flagship hydro power project Kabompo, located in Mwinilunga in northwest Zambia, has been scheduled for completion in December 2016 and has made significant progress in its implementation
Speaking at the 25th Africa Hydro Symposium in Livingstone, Copperbelt Energy Corporation (CEC) executive chairman Hanson Sindowe said the 40MW Kabompo power project was progressing towards financial closure with the contractual EPC financing and social progress in hand. EPC contractor Sino Hydro Corporation of China has made steady progress on work with 80 per cent under Phase One completed, he added.
Sindowe said CEC has taken a leap from its core business of largely power transmission supply to mines to venture into hydro power and renewable energy generation, taking advantage of the continent's readily available demand for electrical power.
"CEC remains committed to Zambia and will continue to occupy a strategic position, not only in Zambia's power sector, but in the entire economy as mining remains the country's economic mainstay," he said.
As a private player in the power sector, CEC has followed with keen interest the emerging shift in policies by many of the continent's governments to allow and encourage private sector participation in the power sector.
Meanwhile, CEC is actively pursuing the feasibility studies and development of the 800MW of LuapulaRiver hydro schemes project. The company has updated the feasibility studies for the five projects along the length of the Luapula River that defines the border of Luapula Province in Zambia and Katanga Province in DR Congo.
In 2012, an aerial survey of the river and catchment area, which provides the necessary detailed topographic information to undertake detailed designs of the schemes, was completed. CEC has also completed a feasibility study for the construction of the transmission line that will be used to evacuate the hydro power into the Luapula, Katanga and Copperbelt provinces.
Nawa Mutumweno
