The two contracts are to be financed from the NEPAD Infrastructure Project Preparation Facility (NEPAD-IPPF) and the Multilateral Cooperation Centre for Development Finance (MCDF), with the African Development Bank as its supervising entity in the administration of the grant financing facility.
Three sites, Mumbotuta CX, Mambilima V and Mambilima Y, with a potential of about 800 MW, were identified by a pre-feasibility study in 2019 by EDF and Gibbs of South Africa. The project is designed to contribute to improved socio-economic development in the Katanga province in DRC and the Copperbelt, Central and Luapula provinces of Zambia, by promoting upscaling of industrial mining, agriculture, and electrification of rural areas.
The planned plants would be connected to the 330 kV Kolwezi-Solwezi interconnector project, linking DRC and Zambia, the Mozambique-Zambia interconnector and the Zambia-Tanzania-Kenya (ZTK) transmission interconnector (via the ZESCO network). The interconnections through the SNEL and ZESCO networks will facilitate generation dispatch to load centres in the SAPP, Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP) and the Central African Power Pool (CAPP), contributing to access to affordable energy from hydropower sources, and improved reliability and security of supply in the integrated electricity markets.
The technical and economic feasibility studies include the provision of a bankable feasibility study, conceptual design and separate tender documents for each country for the hydropower stations and transmission lines, and will comprise:
(i) review of prefeasibility study findings;
(ii) role of the Luapula river hydropower projects in relation to other technologies in Zambia and DRC;
(iii) detailed feasibility study of generation and transmission assets and evaluation of off-takers; and,
(iv) tender documentation for the three sites.
The scope of services under the contract for the Environmental and Social Impact Assessment Study and Resettlement Policy Framework will:
(i) consider all relevant project considerations;
(ii) provide a framework to assess project life cycle environmental and social risks and impacts, support project structuring to ensure project outcomes are environmentally and socially sound and sustainable, and inform decision making;
(iii) describe the measures to identify, avoid, minimize, reduce or mitigate project environmental and social impacts and risks;
(iv) identify and evaluate the project’s potential environmental and social risks, impacts and propose mitigation measures;
(v) thoroughly examine the three proposed sites and hydropower scheme alternatives (run-of-river or storage); identify ways to improve project siting, planning, design and seek opportunities to enhance positive impacts, as well as for other recommended sites to ensure a basin wide study due to cumulative impacts; and,
(vi) examine supporting ancillary infrastructure such as transmission lines, access roads, substations and construction facilities; identify ways to improve siting, planning, designing of the infrastructure and seek opportunities to minimize negative impacts and enhance positive impacts.
Qualifying criteria for each contract can be viewed in the procurement notices published on the website of the African Development Bank at respectively: https://www.afdb.org/en/documents/eoi-multinational-consultancy-services-undertake-feasibility-study-conceptual-design-and-bidding-documents-luapula-hydro-power-plant and, https://www.afdb.org/en/documents/eoi-multinational-consultancy-services-undertake-feasibility-study-environmental-and-social-impact-assessment-esia-resettlement-action-plan-rap-luapula-hydropower-project.
