Inga dams

Inga I dam, with the feeding canal for Inga II in the foreground.

Inga dam projects, as of 2006.

Official projections for Inga III and Grand Inga, as of 2006.

The Inga Dams, located in western Democratic Republic of the Congo and 140 miles southwest of Kinshasa, are two hydroelectric dams connected to the largest waterfall in the world, Inga Falls. Here, the Congo River drops 96 metres and has an average flow of 42,476 m³/s.

Current dams

Currently, the two hydroelectric dams, Inga I and Inga II, operate at low output. The existing dams have a total installed capacity of 1,775 MW. They were built under former president Mobutu Sese Seko as part of the Inga–Shaba project.

Expansion plans

Plans are underway to rehabilitate the two dams. There are also plans for Inga III and Grand Inga, two massive new hydroelectric stations.^[1]

Projections indicate that, once completed, Inga III would generate 4,500 megawatts of electricity. Inga III is the centerpiece of the Westcor partnership, which envisions the interconnection of the electric grids of the DRC, Namibia, Angola, Botswana, and South Africa. The World Bank, the African Development Bank, the European Investment Bank, JFPI Corporation, bilateral donors, and the southern African power companies have all expressed interest in pursuing the project, estimated to cost USD $80 billion.

Grand Inga would generate 39,000 MW – which would significantly boost the energy needs of the African continent at a cost of $80 billion. Connecting Inga to a continent-wide electricity grid for main population centres would cost $10 billion more (est. 2000). This would be the world's largest hydroelectric project. Critics contend the huge amounts of money required for the project would be better spent with smaller scale, localized energy projects that would target meeting the needs of Africa's poor majority.

The NEPAD (New Partnership for Africa's Development) with a great involvement of South African electric power company ESKOM has suggested to start the Grand Inga project in 2010.^[2][3] At an installed capacity of 39,000 MW, the Grand Inga alone could produce 250 TWh annually, or a total of 370 TWh annually for the whole site. In 2005, Africa's annual electricity production was 550 TWh (600 kWh per capita). If the dam were to be completed somewhere in the 2020s, the continent might produce more than 1000 TWh, 20% of total estimated energy requirements, at that time.

Africa's electric energy disparity

The electric energy disparity in the continent makes the part of Africa in-between the tropics the most in need of many small or big energy projects equivalent to Great Inga. The 550 TWh were produced in 2005 as follows:

• 230 TWh (42%): South Africa with 5.5% of the continent population (4500 kWh per capita)

• 150 TWh (27%): Five northern African nations with 16.7% of the continent population: Egypt, Algeria, Morocco, Tunisia and Libya (1000 kWh per capita)

• 170 TWh (31%): The rest of the continent or intertropical Africa with 77.8% of the continent population (250 kWh per capita)

This is an average power of 63 GW to be compared to the 43.5 GW the Inga and the Grand Inga would generate.

There is a false belief that the Grand Inga can produce enough electricity for the whole continent.^[4] That was true before the 1990s.^[5][6] The continent has an annual economic growth of 5%. In 2005, six nations from the north and south regions with 22% of African population used 70% of the total electric energy produced. The remaining 47 nations with 78% of African population shared 30% equivalent to a per capita of 250 kWh on average. Those 47 countries are working hard to meet the Millennium Development Goals in 2015.^[7] Doubling their per capita electric production in the next decade to 500 kWh means that the continent will need at least 1000 TWh from its 550 TWh in 2005.

However, according to one commentator, Grand Inga would be too large a proportion of the African demand (43.5 GW combined output compared to a load of 63 GW) to be a practical power source without interconnection to other power grids. That is, if for some reason there were a large-scale failure of the dam or its connections to the grid, such as 2009 Brazil and Paraguay blackout (17GW), or the 2009 Sayano–Shushenskaya hydro accident (6.4 GW), it would plunge large parts of Africa into a power failure due to the very large and sudden power loss (the recent 2009 Sayano–Shushenskaya hydro accident total failure had a disastrous effect on local aluminium smelters). Hence, to be fully utilized, it needs to be interconnected with Europe such that some power goes to Europe at some times, but that Europe can also back feed power to Africa. This increases the stability of both systems and reduces overall costs.^[8][9]

References

External links

• World declaration : Dams and Hydropower for African Sustainable Development
• Democratic Republic of Congo/Energy Sector – Bank Information Center
• International Rivers' Inga Page
• World Rainforest Movement
• Barrage Grand Inga
• Grand Inga Dam, DR Congo

Coordinates: 5°31′S 13°37.3′E / 5.517°S 13.6217°E / -5.517; 13.6217