People will be connected by Moyi Power over the lifetime of the concession
It will initially deploy 59MW of photovoltaic panels; 117MWh battery storage and 12MW diesel generation
Moyi aims to double its operating capacity every 5 years
Moyi Power is a US$500 million greenfield utility in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC).
Moyi Power will supply solar-powered electricity to households and businesses in three cities in northern DRC, Gemena, Bumba and Isiro, with a current combined population of 700,000. The cities currently have no grid connection, and struggle to access reliable, affordable and clean power.
Moyi Power was born out of the Essor Project. This is a UK government-funded process to improve access to electricity in isolated cities in DRC by building and operating greenfield, hybrid-solar utilities.
A Gridworks-led consortium was selected as the winning bidder for the Essor Project after an international tender process run by the government of the DRC.
The project has generated significant interest from the development finance community because it provides a replicable model with the scale and regulatory underpinning to attract further investment in greenfield utilities across Africa, and to reach many more customers than traditional, small-scale mini grids.
Moyi Power follows a distributed renewable energy model that uses isolated local grids to distribute power to homes and businesses from renewable sources. The company will operate independently of the national grid, under a long-term, private sector concession structure. Moyi Power signed concession contracts for the Project with the Government of DRC on 3 June 2021. Moyi is a word for sun in Lingala, one of the four national languages of DRC, and the main language of the three cities that will be served by the company.
The development and financing process is ongoing, and is expected to take around a year. At the conclusion of financing and other contractual arrangements, Moyi Power will then begin an 18-month construction period of the power plants and associated distribution networks in each of the three cities following which it will then begin operations to provide power for the twenty-year operating period of the concessions.
Only half of Mozambique’s population has access to electricity. Adding 460km of new infrastructure will significantly increase the reliability of electricity in the northern regions of Zambezia and Nampula, which have the lowest electricity access rates in the country (at 25% and 18% respectively).
The project will enable the transmission of solar and hydropower to the northern region. For example, hydropower generated in the Zambezia region in the west of Mozambique currently only supplies southern Mozambique, as the southern and central regions are not connected – this project will enable the supply of renewable power to the north of the country.
The northern areas of Mozambique, in particular the Nampula-Nacala area, have significant industrial demand. However, the required capacity of the transmission infrastructure far exceeds the transfer limit on the existing system. The project will help address this challenge.
“This project has the capacity to transform hundreds of thousands of lives by bringing reliable, affordable electricity to homes and to businesses in northern DRC. By building electricity infrastructure we support local entrepreneurs to grow their businesses and create jobs, we help families get better education and healthcare, and we empower women. In serving these three cities, Moyi Power has the critical mass and regulatory support that is missing from most mini-grid models. It can set an example to the off-grid industry, pushing down costs for consumers and attracting long-term capital from investors.”
Gridworks makes equity investments in transmission, distribution and distributed energy utilities in Africa.
