Ivory Coast has big expansion plans for hydro power

CHINA’S Sinohydro Corporation will build three additional hydroelectric plants in Ivory Coast after completing what will be the nation’s biggest dam by October, according to a government official.

The combined capacity of the three plants may be as much as 500MW, adding to the 275MW that will be supplied by the Soubre dam once it’s completed, said Brahima Dosso, the director of the Soubre project at CI-Energies, a state-owned company that oversees investments in the energy sector.

The $592 million (R7.8 billion) Soubre dam on the Sassandra river, in the western region, is one of the flagship projects of President Alassane Ouattara, who has vowed to boost the country’s energy supply, already the most reliable in West Africa, to maintain high economic growth. Total installed power capacity is currently almost 2 000MW. Plans for the Soubre dam date back to the 1960s.

The government is also in advanced discussions with the Beijing-based company for a 112MW dam in Gribo Popoli on the Sassandra river, Dosso said in an interview on Friday in the commercial capital, Abidjan. The Export-Import Bank of China has agreed in principle to fund the project, which is due to start in October and will take about 40 months, he said.

Feasibility studies are under way for two other dams further south with a combined maximum capacity of 380MW, he said. The size of the plants in Boutoubre and Louga will depend on their impact on the environment and the local population, he said.

“Ivory Coast has relaunched the construction of dams so as to increase the part of hydro in the energy mix,” Dosso said. “We have a significant capacity to produce hydro.” Ivory Coast, which exports electricity to neighbouring countries such as Ghana and Mali, seeks to double its energy supply by 2020.