Zambia power firm seeks govt approval for projects Tue Feb 2

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Zambia power firm seeks govt approval for projects
Tue Feb 23, 2010 4:52pm GMT

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DURBAN, South Africa (Reuters) - Zambia's sole power distributor to the copper mines said on Tuesday it was awaiting government approval for its key expansion projects and will raise capital from the markets for some of them.

The CEC, which plans to partner U.S and Chinese firms, to build new power projects, said it was on course to start constructing a power interconnector between the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) and Zambia to boost power supply in the region.

Titus Mwandemena, CEC Business Development Manager, said the company planned to start building the proposed 33 megawatts (MW) Kabompo Gorge hydro project in northwestern Zambia to light up the region and provide additional power to the copper mines, the country's economic lifeblood.

"We've just finished the feasibility study now so we will try to tap the market for that. We need to go to the market to get the price, but our estimate is around $120 million," Mwandemena told Reuters at an Africa utility conference in Durban, South Africa.

Mwandemena said the CEC, which had raised $15 million to complete a 45 kilometre stretch of power lines on the Zambia side, would complete the interconnector to the DRC close to the end of 2011.

The World Bank is financing the project on the DRC side but Mwendemena did not say how long the power lines would stretch in that country.