Thermal gas station announced in Edéa

An association of private Cameroonian and Norwegian, grouped under Grenor SA, plans to invest 109 billion FCFA for the construction of a thermal power plant in the town of Edea, capital of the Sanaga Maritime Department, Littoral Region.

This initiative, sources said, will help increase the supply of electricity.

Cameroon Tribune indicated yesterday that Grenor SA is part of the last batch of six companies to sign agreements with the government to benefit from the Act of April 18, 2013, incentives for private investment in Cameroon.

It was signed on Thursday, September 17 at the Ministry of Mines, Industry and Technological Development. The journal noted that Minister Emmanuel Bondé is particularly pleased with the heavy investment of Grenor S.A., which has created 1114 direct jobs.

Polycarpe Banlog, Managing Director of the structure, told Cameroon Tribune that "we have been ready for more than a year. Now that the convention is signed, we will travel immediately to begin to ship thermal plants to Cameroon. They have been already acquired. The only difficulty we have now is the level of the availability of natural gas which we will use as fuel. But it will be solved immediately.”

Thermal energy seems to be the emergency solution adopted by the Cameroonian government in the short term to reduce the country's energy deficit. It is in this framework that the Thermal Emergency Programme (PTU) initiated in 2009 and operational since January 2012 was put in place. This program has enabled the establishment of four power plants installed in the cities of Yaoundé (60 MW), Bamenda (20 MW), Mbalmayo (10 MW) and Ebolowa (10 MW).

The company, AES Sonel, built the gas plant of Kribi (216 MW), through its subsidiary, Power Development Company (KPDC) Kribi, and the Yassa-Dibamba (86 MW) thermal power plant, via the Dibamba Power Development Company (DPDC).

Its successor, Eneo Cameroon SA, recently sold its shares to the consortium controlled by the Norwegian Fund Nordfund and the Commonwealth Development Corporation British financing institution.