- AfDB approves a $ 125 million loan to modernize Mozambique’s Cahora Bassa hydroelectric scheme.
- Its power plant has an installed capacity of 2,075 MW.
Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), currently operating the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric scheme in Mozambique, has just obtained a $125 million loan from the African Development Bank (AfDB). The Growing Together in Africa Fund, a $2 billion facility funded by the People’s Bank of China (PBC) and administered by the AfDB, and the AfDB each contribute $100 million to the recently approved funding.
The funding will be used to upgrade the power generation system as part of the Vital Capex program. On the Zambezi River, the Cahora Bassa hydroelectric project consists of a 300-meter-long dam that is 171 meters high. A power plant with five 415 MW turbines and a total installed capacity of 2,075 MW is made possible by the dam. With a capacity of 2,100 MW, it is the second-largest operational hydroelectric plant in Africa after the Aswan plant in Egypt.
Since the plant’s commissioning between 1976 and 1979, HCB has sold energy to the SADC nations of South Africa, Zambia, and Botswana, as well as the government-owned Electricidade de Moçambique (EDM). The company, which has its headquarters not far from the Cahora Bassa dam in the village of Songo in the province of Tete, claims that modernizing its manufacturing facilities will add at least 25 years to the plant’s lifespan.
In 2019, the Cahora Bassa hydropower plant rehabilitation contract was awarded to a group led by Sweco, a Stockholm, Sweden-based architectural firm, and Intertechne Consultores, a Curitiba, Brazil-based business. In 2025, the rehabilitation work ought to be finished.