Lufubu Hydropower Project

The Lufubu hydropower scheme Project is a new project to be developed on the Lufubu River Basin in Mpulungu and Nsama District of Northern Province. It is aimed at strengthening the national grid supply and stability, contributing to economic growth as well as unlocking tourism and investment potential in the northern part of Zambia. The Lufubu River runs through the Northern Province and is one of the inflows into Lake Tanganyika. The proposed Hydropower cascade scheme project will consist of a cascade of three (3) power plants to be constructed along the Lufubu River and these will be; the Lufubu 1 (installed phase 1 capacity of 66MW), Lufubu 2 (43MW) and Lufubu 3 (54MW) giving a total phase 1 installed capacity of 163MW. The power plants will be interconnected by 132kV transmission lines. The project has a 4-year construction period. The project is expected to succeed not only because it is profitable (with EBITDA projected at USD118.4m in year 1 of operations and increasing at a projected 2% per annum) and readily available market, but also the project site offers higher and more consistent rainfall patterns than the southern parts of Zambia, where all the country’s major hydropower stations are concentrated. The project is available for FDI through a minority stake. The Lufubu Power Company Limited seeks to meet the cost of construction, acquisition and installations of the Hydropower generation plant and all other project development costs estimated at US$700 million through project financing arrangement to be sourced in form of equity or a loan facility.

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