- The Globeleq-led Central Térmica de Temane (CTT) 450 MW gas-fired power project, located at Temane in Inhambane Province in Mozambique, will begin commercial operations in January 2025, according to a document from Eletricidade de Moçambique (EDM).
- The plant will use natural gas to produce electricity supplied from the Pande-Temane Fields operated by Sasol and ENH, the state-owned hydrocarbon company.
- The plant will supply low-cost, reliable power to EDM under a 25-year tolling agreement.
- Once online the plant will increase the country’s installed electricity production capacity by around 14%.
Construction commenced in January 2022. Debt financing of the US$652.3 million project is being provided by IFC, together with its “B” loan participants FMO and Emerging Africa Infrastructure Fund (together US$253.5 million), US International Development Finance Corporation (DFC) (approximately US$191.5 million) and the OPEC Fund for International Development (OPEC Fund) (US$50 million). The Multilateral Investment Guarantee Agency (MIGA) has provided up to $251.3 million in political risk insurance to private sector equity investors. CTT is 85% owned by Mozambique Power Invest (MPI) and 15% by Sasol Africa. MPI is owned by Globeleq (76%) and EDM (24%).
The project is aligned with the Paris Agreement and will support Mozambique’s longer-term sustainable energy transition to net zero by 2050. CTT’s flexible technical and commercial configuration allows for a variable supply of baseload and dispatchable power. It will deliver complementary power so that Mozambique can maximise renewable energy generation projects on its grid and pursue lower-carbon energy development. In addition, the Siemens SGT-800 turbines chosen for the plant can be upgraded to handle high hydrogen content, reducing the plant’s carbon impact.
CTT also anchors a new 563 km high-voltage transmission line (the Temane Transmission Project (TTP)) and secures the first phase of the interconnection of the southern grid to the central and northern grids of Mozambique. The entire value chain (gas development, gas-fired power plant and transmission infrastructure) will see an investment of more than US$2 billion.
Author: Bryan Groenendaal
