Construction of Mozambique-Malawi power line to start in March 2021

By Jorge Joaquim

The Mozambican government has launched an international public tender to select the contractor who will build the 400 kV electricity transmission line linking Mozambique and Malawi,

The 220 km line has guarantees of funding of 127 million US dollars from the World Bank, the Norwegian government, and German Cooperation (through the German Development Bank. KfW).

For his part, Joao Catine, the official of the Mozambican publicly owned electricity company, EDM, responsible for the transmission line project, said that another international public tender will be launched “within days” to choose a contractor to build a brand new electricity sub-station to raise the voltage in the centre-north power system to 400 kV, and with a capacity of 500 MVA (megavolt amperes).

“This is enough power to satisfy the short and medium term demand in Malawi”, said Catine. “The conclusion of all the procedures for selecting the two contractors is envisaged for December”.

Work on the power line should begin in March 2021, and the conclusion is scheduled for March 2023. Catine added that KfW will also support EDM in installing fibre-optic cables along the regional inter-connection line, and along two other high voltage transmission lines in central Mozambique.

The German government is providing 30 million euros (about 35 million US dollars) for the regional interconnection project and to strengthen internal communications along the EDM transmission lines. The World Bank has provided 42 million dollars, and the contribution from the Norwegian government is 24 million dollars, channelled via the World Bank. These three financing agreements became effective as from this month.

The inter-connection project will link Malawi to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP), which coordinates the planning and operation of electrical power systems among its member utilities. It will ensure diversification of Malawi’s electricity supplies, and allow Malawi to participate in the regional electricity market.

The agreements between EDM and the Malawian Electricity Company (Escom) were signed in April 2019 in Blantyre.