South Africa is
talking to the Democratic Republic of Congo to revive a stalled $8-$10
billion 5,000 megawatt hydro power project on the Congo River, South
African energy minister, Dipuo Peters, said on Tuesday.
Last year, the DRC
rejected a proposal by the Western Power Corridor (Westcor), a joint
venture between five southern African governments and power utilities,
that would have led to exports of up to 3,000 MW to South Africa and
another 1,000 MW to neighbouring countries by 2015.
“We are engaging
with the government and department of energy in the DRC so as to make
it possible that the initiative that we put on hold can be able to be
resuscitated,” Mr. Peters told an African energy conference.
Sub-Saharan Africa
needs an extra 7,000 MW of capacity a year to meet the demand of its
800 million people, who currently have access to the same amount of
power as Spain, which has a population of 45 million.
