Congo seeks investors for $12bn to fix power shortages

Democratic Republic of Congo is seeking investors to develop $12 billion of electricity projects over the next five years to combat shortages hobbling economic growth.

The portfolio includes generation, transmission and distribution projects beyond the development of its Inga hydroelectric complex, which could eventually be the world’s biggest power-generating site of its kind, according to Teddy Muba Lwamba, chief executive officer of state-owned energy company SNEL.

The country’s booming mining industry “is creating a significant opportunity, and a great deal of interest” in investments in power, Lwamba told Bloomberg last week after meetings in Paris with US and World Bank officials to discuss Inga’s development. “We’ve held extensive discussions with financial institutions, and the outlook is very positive.”

Congo has some 3 350 hydroelectric sites with the potential to generate 167  200 megawatts, with Inga alone capable of more than 40 000 megawatts, according to the government.

In Paris, Congolese officials presented a stripped-down version of the next phase for Inga — to produce around 4,800 megawatts for the mining sector and industrial users, Lwamba said.

Previous versions of the Inga III project envisaged plants of up to 11 200 megawatts that would ship electricity as far as South Africa, Nigeria or Egypt. The government now favours a smaller iteration focused on domestic consumption, though two bigger versions were also discussed, according to Lwamba.

Congo’s miners alone require about 5 800 megawatts, but receive less than half of that from SNEL, Lwamba said. The company supplements with 375 megawatts of imported power and roughly 400 megawatts from diesel and solar.

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Miners have been forced to use diesel generators to run their plants, with fuel costs due to the US-Iran conflict squeezing companies despite historically high copper prices.

Congo is the world’s second-biggest producer of copper and largest source of battery mineral cobalt. It also has huge deposits of lithium, zinc, tin, tantalum and gold.

“It’s industrial production that could be happening at high capacity, but can’t because of the lack of available electric energy,” Lwamba said.

Last year, Washington and Congo signed a strategic economic partnership giving US firms privileged access to develop mineral and infrastructure projects, including Inga.

More power “will help U.S. companies grow their operations, create jobs for Congolese workers, and strengthen the critical mineral supply chains that support American industry,” the US State Department said Wednesday in an emailed response to questions.

Exploring opportunities

In July, the government announced it would split SNEL into generation, transmission, and distribution divisions to encourage investment in different parts of the energy supply chain. The company is also restructuring its debt to unlock cash and “demonstrate to our partners that we have a reliable financial position,” Lwamba said.

Last month, SNEL signed a deal with Turkey’s Karpowership to provide 135 megawatts to the capital, Kinshasa, by the end of the year from a boat docked at the port of Matadi, he said.

The government is also in talks to develop the 132-megawatt Portes d’Enfer hydropower site in the lithium, gold and coltan-rich Tanganyika province. In September government officials met with Belgium’s BESIX Group to discuss the project.

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BESIX said the meetings were to “explore possible opportunities,” but couldn’t comment on any “specific projects or potential partnerships.”

SNEL is also negotiating a 600-megawatt project at Wanie-Rukula near Kisangani in the gold-rich northeast that would ship power over 1,400 kilometers (870 miles) of lines to five provinces, Lwamba said, but declined to identify the companies involved.

Some of Congo’s power solutions could also come from its neighbours, he said.

The company is in talks with its Tanzanian counterpart for a 700-kilometer line to transport 700 megawatts as far as CMOC Group’s massive Tenke Fungurume copper mines. The project could include a submarine cable across Lake Tanganyika.

Another 500-megawatt project would go from Soyo in Angola to Inga, while another would span 1 460 kilometers from Malanje province in Angola to Fungurume, he said.

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