Grand Inga dam back on the table?
London, 24 April: A long-talked-over plan to build a massive hydroelectric plant in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was revived this week, as ministers, utilities and bankers gathered in London for a meeting convened by the World Energy Council (WEC).

WEC estimates the ‘Grand Inga’ project on the Inga River will cost more than $80 billion, around half of which would go to building a transmission system connecting the power plant to Egypt, South Africa and Nigeria. It would have a potential capacity of 40 gigawatts, or more than 320 terrawatt hours a year. WEC said: “As an example, the price per kWh generated at the Inga site and transmitted to the Italian border  would  be lower than the market price in Italy today.”

It is not clear how the projects would be financed, but Gerald Doucet, secretary general of WEC, indicated before the conference that the power plant could generate carbon credits as a Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) project under the Kyoto Protocol. However there are currently restrictions on registering large-scale hydro projects under the mechanism's rules.

"The banks and the City of London see that Grand Inga is serious. The G8 countries are behind it because they can get UN CDM credits to offset their emissions. Chinese, Brazilian and Canadian dam-building companies, as well as the World Bank, are all interested," said Doucet was quoted as saying in The Guardian.

The meeting was attended by representatives from the World Bank, the European Investment Bank, the International Finance Corporation, Citigroup, ministers from countries including Botswana, Cameroon, Namibia, Nigeria and Tanzania, as well as utilities from Africa and Europe – including EDF and E.ON and construction firms.

‘Grand Inga’ would be the final stage of the Inga project conceived in the 1960s. Inga 1, with a capacity of 351MW, was commission in 1972, and Inga 2, at 1,424MW, was commissioned in 1982. Inga 3 is still in development. According to WEC, it will be commissioned between 2018 and 2021, and cost at least $5 billion, with a planned capacity of 4,320MW. ‘Grand Inga’ would be commissioned by around 2020-25, WEC said.

Inga 1 and 2 are respectively operating at 52% and 34% of capacity and must be rehabilitated before the rest of the project can go ahead. WEC said that funding has been secured for some of the work needed.

NGO International Rivers – which also sent a representative to the meeting – raised queries about the project, both in terms of the environmental and social impacts, whether residents of the surrounding area would get access to the electricity generated by the power plants and also about communities it says are still waiting for compensation after being displaced by Inga 1 and 2. The NGO argues that the dam “will not substantially change” the situation of the 165 million people without electricity in the region.

WEC has issued a list of five principles under which the project should “move forward”, including making sure that it would provide immediate benefits to people living in the Inga River area; bring “affordable and clean electricity” to Africans in the DRC and beyond; create an engineering and manufacturing “zone” around the site of the dam, for technology transfer and job creation; develop the project on a commercial basis; and stimulate African sustainable development.

A WEC spokeswoman told Environmental Finance that the London-based organisation does not intend to publish a report on the meeting. “It’s too early for us to publish results. It was just a discussion platform about the project.”