Aim- and JSE-listed Kibo Energy has received formal notice from the Tanzania Electric Supply Company (Tanesco) to develop the Mbeya coal-to-power project (MCPP) for the export market.
This enables the company to engage with African power pools regarding offtake agreements.
The MCPP has been fully developed up to bankable feasibility stage, with a potential generating capacity of 1 000 MW. Three market opportunities exist for the company, namely utility, export and private offtake.
“The existing acute undersupply of power within Tanzania and the Southern African region, means that there is an urgent demand for electricity and, given that Tanzania has a target to deliver about 880 MW for the export market for the period 2020 to 2040, the MCPP was well positioned to help meet this demand,” Kibo stated previously.
Tanesco was implementing interconnectors through Zambia, Tanzania and Kenya, enabling power trade among the Eastern African Power Pool and the Southern African Power Pool member countries.
Tanesco recommended that Kibo engage these power pools to ensure participation in the high-demand export market; however, Kibo remained engaged with Tanesco regarding energy supply to the domestic market.
Kibo CEO Louis Coetzee pointed out that this notice from Tanesco was not subject to any Tanesco tender process and was unrelated to the tender referred to in February, in terms of which Kibo requested clarification on a bid that Tanesco rejected for the next stage of bidding for coal power projects with a total capacity of 600 MW.