Construction work on the Temane Thermal Power Station (CTT) in Inhambane province has been delayed due to the impact of cyclones Freddy and Filipo. According to Agência de Informação de Moçambique, the weather phenomena caused the site where the work is taking place to be completely flooded.
‘The plant’s start-up, initially scheduled for this year, has been jeopardised and is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2025,’ said well-placed sources from Globeleq, the entity that designed the project.
Last May, Samir Salé, Globeleq’s Director of Development and Business, had assured that the level of execution of the project, budgeted at 41 billion meticals (650 million dollars), was around 75 per cent.
At the time, the source guaranteed that the work had progressed, despite the negative impacts of Cyclone Freddy and Tropical Depression Filipo: ‘In assessing the impacts, it became clear that the constraints had been promptly overcome and work was progressing at a fast pace to make up for lost time in order to meet the commissioning deadlines scheduled for the third half of this year,’ he explained.
‘The project is going relatively well. We were hit by two cyclones which had some impact on the progress of the works, but we are working with our contractor and Electricidade de Moçambique to make up as much time as possible,’ said Samir Salé in May 2014.
The CTT is described as the largest in the country to use natural gas and will have a production capacity of 450 MegaWatts (MW) from the Pande and Temane gas reserves over a 25-year period, increasing the country’s installed electricity production capacity by ‘around 16 per cent’. The aim is to provide more than 1.5 million families with access to electricity by 2030, as part of the government’s universal energy access programme, as well as contributing to national industrialisation and consolidating Mozambique’s role as a common energy hub in southern Africa.’
Construction of the plant began in March 2022, including a 563-kilometre power transmission line to Maputo province, at a cost of more than 25.4 billion meticals (400 million dollars).
The CTT project is valued at 41.2 billion meticals (650 million dollars), according to figures from Globeleq, the multinational with a majority stake in the infrastructure. In addition to natural gas, the plant will reuse the steam generated to produce an additional amount of electricity, which will be supplied to EDM for distribution on the national market, with the surplus to be exported to the southern African region.
