CEC, InnoVent Consortium awarded GET FiT Zambia Solar PV IPP projects

The Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc (CEC), in partnership with InnoVent SAS, has been awarded two solar photovoltaic (PV) projects of 20MW each in a highly competitive international tender under the GET FiT Zambia programme.

Announcing the tender award result on Friday, 5th April at a press conference hosted by the Ministry of Energy Permanent Secretary, Brigadier General Emelda Chola, GET FiT Zambia said it had awarded six solar PV projects totalling 120MW in what is described as the largest single solar PV tender implemented in Sub-Saharan Africa outside of South Africa.

CEC, the only Zambian company in the awarded consortia, formed a joint venture partnership with French firm InnoVent SAS and submitted two proposals to develop two projects of 20MW each in Kitwe, Zambia.

Managing Director, Owen Silavwe, said “The success of both our project proposals in such a rigorous and internationally competitive auction process demonstrates the commitment and abilities of CEC to forge world class partnerships and compete successfully at the highest level. This gives further impetus to our ambition to enhance our contribution to the objective of making available sustainable and affordable energy in our country and to the development of a diversified energy portfolio mix predicated on clean energy sources.”

Silavwe expressed excitement at the fact that CEC remains a true partner in Zambia’s energy infrastructure development, where the Company continues to provide relevant and valuable local content, maximising benefits to the country in terms of economic welfare, technology, knowledge transfer and overall human capacity development.

CEC and its partner, InnoVent SAS, will develop the Garneton North and South sites, both situated in Kitwe, on an IPP (independent power producer) basis to produce power at a cost of United States Dollar cents 4.80/kWh.

ENDS

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About CEC

The Copperbelt Energy Corporation Plc is a power company domiciled in Zambia and licensed to provide electricity generation, transmission, distribution and supply services. CEC’s primary market is the copper mining industry in Zambia, accounting for around 45% of national energy consumption, and the Democratic Republic of Congo. Having successfully operated for more than 60 years, CEC has valuable insights into the mining industry and is widely well respected for its skills in designing, operating and maintaining electrical power systems. A pioneer of power trading, CEC is an active regional power trader in Southern Africa and owns cross-national transmission interconnection infrastructure.

CEC owns more than 1,000 kilometres of primary transmission lines at 220kV and 66kV, 42 high voltage substations, 80MW embedded thermal generation, 1MW solar PV capacity and 900,000MT per annum biodiesel production plant. It is listed on the Lusaka Securities Exchange.

About InnoVent SAS

Founded in 2001 in France, InnoVent SAS creates, builds and runs solar and wind power plants in France and Africa. With above 370MW of wind farm in operation in France and 140MW of renewable energy power plants running in Africa, InnoVent has gained valuable experience in the energy market.

Based on its references, InnoVent is now among the main independent power producers in the renewable energy sector in Africa and is proud to capitalize on its know-how to further increase its track record. As a pioneer in its activity, InnoVent makes all effort to implement the best international practices in emerging markets leading to a win-win situation for the local authorities and the citizen.

About GET FiT Zambia

GET FiT Zambia is the Government of the Republic of Zambia’s programme to facilitate private sector investment in small and medium scale renewable energy independent power projects. The programme is a partnership between the Department of Energy (in the Ministry of Energy) and the German Development Bank, KfW. It is designed to assist the Zambian Government in the implementation of its Renewable Energy Feed-in Tariff (REFiT) Strategy.

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