Central Termica de Ressano Garcia

active

The Central Termica de Ressano Garcia (CTRG) project involves the design, construction, operation and maintenance of a new 175MW gas-fired power plant. The proposed investment is an IFC A loan of up to US$70 million. The project’s sponsors are Electricidade de Mozambique (EDM), the integrated public power utility in Mozambique and Sasol New Energy a wholly owned subsidiary of Sasol Limited of South Africa. EDM will hold 51% and Sasol will hold 49% of the special purpose vehicle incorporated in Mozambique. The power plant is located in the border town of Ressano Garcia in Moamba District, Maputo Province, Mozambique. The project site covers a footprint of approximately six hectares of greenfield site. The surrounding land use includes a mixture of agricultural/forestry land and low density residential areas. Access to the site is via a 200m gravel road which connects it to the N4 highway, the main road leading to South Africa. There is one gas plant located in the vicinity of the project, Aggreko (107MW), and another proposed project, Gigawatt (100MW). The CTRG plant is expected to generate between 140MW and 175MW of net electricity using up to 18 internal combustion engines (Wärtsilä engines of the type 20V34SG), each with an open capacity of approximately 9.73MW. Sixteen gas engines will be in operation with one on standby and one on maintenance. All engines will be located indoors in a power house. The natural gas will be sourced from the Pande and Temane gas field concession and supplied to the plant via a new 1.2 km pipeline branch from the existing main gas pipeline (owned by Republic of Mozambique Investment Company, ROMCO), which exports gas from Mozambique to South Africa. Electrical energy will be exported via a 400m 275 kV transmission line to an existing substation which is located approximately 200m from the CTRG gas plant. The plant will be constructed by Wärtsilä Finland Oy and Wärtsilä Mozambique LDA (EPC contractors). Wärtsilä Mozambique will also provide operations and maintenance (O&M) services during the first three years of operations after which CTRG will take over the operations.At the time of IFC’s site visit in December 2013, the construction and installation of equipment was at approximately 60% completion; the 18 gas engines had been delivered and installation was ongoing. Work had also started on the gas pipeline and transmission line. The plant is expected to start operations in October 2014.IFC previously invested in ENH Equity Finance (Category A, disclosed July 23, 2003, IFC project #10983), which involved the development of the Pande and Temane gas fields from which the gas for this project will be sourced. That project is currently under active IFC supervision and the current environmental and social performance is satisfactory, based on IFC site visits and Annual Monitoring Report reviews.