Chinese firm Sepco III to build coal power plant in Morocco
Rabat - Chinese firm Sepco III has signed a deal to build a 318 megawatt coal-fired plant in Morocco, as the North African kingdom seeks to meet a growing power demand, state power utility ONEE said on Friday.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Chinese-firm-Se...
Sepco III won a 3 billion dirhams tender launched by ONEE last year to build the second coal-fired power plant in the city of Jerada near the Algerian border, where protests erupt frequently over unemployment since the closure of the coal mines there in 2001.
The construction will be financed by Chinese Exim Bank and the plant will start operating by the end of 2016.
A 165 MW plant was built there in 1971 to burn up anthracite, a hard, high carbon-content coal from the mines.
Although Morocco imports most of its coal, ONEE has signed a deal to buy 1,320 MW or 25 pct of the national requirement from a planned huge coal-fired power plant on the Atlantic coast near the city of Safi, under a contract won in 2010 by GDF Suez and the royal holding company Nareva.
Mines and Energy Minister Fouad Douiri told Reuters the plant was expected to start operating by the start of 2017, but sources close to the deal have said the bidders are struggling to raise the funds required and construction may be delayed.
Morocco has a huge deficit in energy production as annual consumption is growing by around 10 percent and it has to spend heavily to subsidize power due to high production costs.
The construction will be financed by Chinese Exim Bank and the plant will start operating by the end of 2016.
A 165 MW plant was built there in 1971 to burn up anthracite, a hard, high carbon-content coal from the mines.
Although Morocco imports most of its coal, ONEE has signed a deal to buy 1,320 MW or 25 pct of the national requirement from a planned huge coal-fired power plant on the Atlantic coast near the city of Safi, under a contract won in 2010 by GDF Suez and the royal holding company Nareva.
Mines and Energy Minister Fouad Douiri told Reuters the plant was expected to start operating by the start of 2017, but sources close to the deal have said the bidders are struggling to raise the funds required and construction may be delayed.
Morocco has a huge deficit in energy production as annual consumption is growing by around 10 percent and it has to spend heavily to subsidize power due to high production costs.
Source : https://www.marocafrik.com/english/Chinese-firm-Se...