Hidroeléctrica de Cahora Bassa (HCB), located in the province of Tete, in the centre of the country, announced that in the first nine months of this year it recorded a net profit of 12.9 billion meticals (200.1 million dollars), pointing out that the figures are 29.1% and 13.4% higher than those budgeted and recorded in the same period of 2023.
In a document shared with DE, the organisation explained that looking at the current financial performance, it is estimated that by the end of 2024, net profit will reach more than 13 billion meticals (201.6 million dollars).
In the document, the company made it known that from January to September, production totalled more than 12,000 GWh, corresponding to 4.7% and 1.2% higher than planned and the same period in 2023, respectively, a figure achieved in the context of the implementation of hydrological management measures aimed at controlling the reduction in the level of water storage in the reservoir.
‘HCB’s production remains resilient to the drought phenomena that are occurring in the region largely due to the management measures that the company has been implementing, the positive impacts of which are notable in the binomial water storage level versus production, which are aimed at satisfying the commercial commitments and energy needs of the country and the southern region,’ he said.
With regard to water availability, HCB said that in the period under review, the dam had a level of 312.07 metres, corresponding to 41.38% of the reservoir’s useful storage, stressing that ‘this level of storage is significantly influenced by low inflows due to the El Niño phenomenon, characterised by below normal rainfall in the region’.
‘The start of the 2024-25 rainy season was characterised by poor rainfall throughout the Zambezi basin, so the company will continue to monitor long-term weather forecasts, the evolution of the hydro-climatological situation in the Zambezi basin and updates to the operating plans for the upstream dams, so that it can make operational adjustments in good time,’ it said.
The Mozambican state holds 90 per cent of HCB’s share capital, since the reversion to Mozambique, agreed with Portugal in 2007, while the Portuguese company Redes Energéticas Nacionais (REN) has a 7.5 per cent share and Electricidade de Moçambique has 2.5 per cent.
The Cahora Bassa reservoir is the fourth largest in Africa, with a maximum length of 270 kilometres and 30 kilometres between banks, occupying 2,700 square kilometres and an average depth of 26 metres.
