Alucam reduces its electricity needs by 60 MW

The low-flow period, characterised by the drop in the water levels in dams in Cameroon due to the drought, is now officially over for 2015.

The announcement was made in a correspondence from the MD of Eneo, the concessionaire of the public electricity service, addressed on 1st July 2016 to consumer associations.

According to Joël Nana Kontchou, this period (December-June) generally characterised by several power cuts detrimental to companies and households, was rather marked, this time around, by a conservation of the balance between the national electricity supply and demand.

The MD of Eneo cites a combination of three main factors at the roots of this major change.

First, we learn, there is the partial flooding of the Lom Pangar dam, in the Eastern region, which helped to stabilise the upstream flow of the Sanaga River.

“The flow this year enabled the Songloulou and Edéa power plants to produce close to twice more than last year during the same period”, the MD of Eneo highlighted in his note to the electricity users.

Then, there was “the works carried out in the power plants to get a better efficiency from the machines” and finally, the reduction in the needs of the company Aluminium du Cameroun (Alucam), which “further contributed to make the system more flexible and guarantee reserves of raw material”.

Indeed, we learn, throughout the 2015 low-water period, this industry, which on its own consumes over 40% of the power produced in Cameroon, “agreed to not consume 60 MW out of the 190 MW it expects to be supplied from Eneo as per contractually agreed”.

We can however note that this reduction in the electricity needs of Alucam also corresponds to a drop in activity in this industrial unit, due to the gloomy international environment for raw material prices.

To substantiate this, during the first quarter of 2016, as highlighted by a report just published by France’s regional economic service, exports of metallurgic products from the Cemac countries to France dropped “by 65%, following the decrease in the sales of aluminium in Cameroon”.