During a recent ordinary meeting held at the Koulouba Palace under the chairmanship of Colonel Assimi GOITA, the Council of Ministers of Mali adopted two draft decrees that will help re-launch Sotuba II Hydroelectric Power Plant Project.
The project, which entails the upgrade and extension works of the existing Sotuba I hydropower plant that was commissioned back in 1960 with a design capacity of 5.2 MWe, according to the Malian government was launched back in 2018 with a two year completion period.
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It is however disturbed by constraints related, in particular, to the change in the tax regime for works contracts, and the cessation of rock excavation operations on the site, a problem that the two decrees intend to put an end to.
Overview of the decrees
The first decree approves amendment no. 1 to contract no. 0209/DGMP-DSP-2017 that relates to the civil engineering works of the project while the second concerns amendment no. 1 to contract no. 00355/DGMP-DSP-2017 relating to the supply and installation of hydro-electromechanical equipment.
The contracts were awarded respectively to China Gezhouba Group Company (CGGC), a Chinese construction and engineering company based in Wuhan, Hubei, and Sinohydro Corporation, a Chinese state-owned hydropower engineering, and Construction Company.
Expectations for the Sotuba II Hydroelectric Power Plant Project
Upon completion the project is set to add two new 3.5 MW Kaplan bulb turbines with the capacity to produce 45 GWh of electricity annually to the Sotuba hydroelectric power plant, increasing the overall annual electricity production of the facility to more than 82 GWh.
This is in line with the West African country’s objective, through its National Renewable Energy Action Plan (PANER), to increase the share of renewable energies in its energy mix to 58.3% (the equivalent of 1416 MW) by 2030.
