Mozambique to Use Renewable Power for New Industries

The country plans to end half a century of hydropower supply to South Africa’s state-owned electricity utility, raising risks for the continent’s most industrialized economy and threatening the viability of Africa’s second-biggest aluminum smelter. In the country’s yet-to-be published energy transition strategy, a copy of which Bloomberg has seen, Mozambique details the plan to secure the 1,150 megawatts of power it sells to South Africa from its Cahora Bassa plant for its own use. “The main short-term hydro priority is the repatriation of electricity from Hidroelectrica de Cahora Bassa currently exported to South Africa” when the contract ends on Dec. 31, 2030, the government said in the strategy document. The decision poses a challenge for South Africa, which is contending with power cuts affecting economic growth, and South32 Ltd., the operator of the Mozal aluminium smelter near Mozambique’s capital, Maputo, which uses electricity bought from South African utility Eskom Holdings SOC Ltd.

BLOOMBERG