The director general of the National Electricity Company of Senegal (Sénélec), Pape Demba Bitèye, announced Thursday, May 20, the upcoming commissioning of a new power plant with a capacity of 120 megawatts from September, in the commune of Malicounda, in Mbour, a city located in the west of the country.
Senelec owns 15% of this plant and will sit on the board of directors as a shareholder.
This project, with funding estimated at 350 million euros, was developed by national investors and entrusted to the Lebanese group Matelec, its largest project to date on the African continent. Funding is 70% provided by the International Finance Corporation (IFC), a member of the World Bank group, and 30% by the group itself.
The power station, which will start up gradually with heavy gall at first, will be able, according to assurances from Demba Biteye, to operate on domestic gas as soon as Senegal has it, according to the “ Gas-To-Power ” process, which would lead to a reduction in production costs.
Matelec will sell the energy produced to Senegal’s national electricity company (Senelec), and once the contract expires, the thermal power plant will be transferred to Senelec. The group already manages two other thermal power stations in Senegal. The first, with a production capacity of 67.5 MW, has been operational since 2008 and the second, with a capacity of 115 MW, has been operating since 2016. These plants are located in Kounoune and Tobène respectively.
