Interview: Biya’s goal to electrify the whole East Region nonnegotiable.

Dr Nsangou made the observation in relation to the start of supply of 30 megawatts of electricity from the Lom Pangar Foot Plant to light up Bertoua and surrounding communities.

The workaholic EDC boss spoke to reporters recently, touching on work in the coming months to light up 10,000 homes in the East Region. It is a concise and incisive exchange that touches on Biya’s ambition in the electricity sector. Read on…

Mr General Manager, the Head of State, President Paul Biya, in his end-of-year message to the nation announced the commissioning of several projects in the electricity sector.  A few days after his announcement, the Lom Pangar foot plant has operational. Can we say that the message from the Head of State triggered the move?

When we listened to the message of the President of the Republic on 31 December last year, we were delighted, because according to his very high instructions, we had done everything possible to ensure that the Lom Pangar plant went operational by the end of 2023.

So, when the President of the Republic said in his message that the plant would be operational in 2024, we knew that he was talking about unit four, because we were in the middle of testing the other three units. 

This is why, in response to the presidential instructions contained in this message, we are pleased to announce that three Lom Pangar generating sets are already operational, covering all the electricity demand in the East region. 

That means Bertoua, Batouri and Abong-Mbang, and other surrounding localities. The fourth unit will serve as a back-up to cover key accounts.

What does this this total coverage mean in terms of megawatts? 

Demand in Bertoua is around 10 megawatts, MW, Batouri is around two MW, to which we add the two MW from Abong-Mbang and surrounding areas. Total demand is therefore around 14 MW at base load, and can reach 18 MW at peak load. 

In other words, this demand is totally open, because the base plant has a capacity of 30 MW. But when we look ahead in terms of future demand, we realise that in the next five years, this plant will reach full capacity and will be sufficient to cover the entire region; powering both households and production units.

Are you saying power supply will just be sufficient while the plant will not be outdated?

Yes, sufficient. When it comes to energy, you always have to anticipate changes in demand. More to this, we're in a system where supply creates demand. Now that there are factories, industries will move in and demand will explode. 

To resolve this issue, we are anticipating the needs of newcomers who, until now, have been using diesel at high prices in order to be energy self-sufficient. 

They will be interested in hydroelectric power. In fact, we're in very advanced talks with some of them to see what portion of hydroelectric power we can make available to them, giving priority to the public sector. 

That's why we're currently working, with the World Bank for funding, on what we call Floating Solar Power. It involves combining hydroelectricity from the foot power plant with solar power from panels to be installed in the Lom Pangar reservoir. 

All these will provide a complete boost to the economy of the East Region, including areas like Bétaré Oya that cannot be covered by the plant.

What impact will the commissioning of the Lom Pangar plant have on the interconnection between the Southern and Eastern networks?

The Lom Pangar plant will make this interconnection more fluid, because until now there have been many shortcomings. Energy was sent from the Mampang substation via Abong-Mbang to Bertoua. 

This energy was extremely unstable, with a lot of power cuts, a lot of voltage drops. The 30 Kilo Volts line between Abong-Mbang and Bertoua is very unstable, due to fallen poles. Despite ENEO's efforts, the line is still having problems.

The advantage today, with the commissioning of the Lom Pangar power plant, is that we have more stable energy supply, which means that the people of the East Region can be guaranteed better availability of electricity. 

As the Lom Pangar reservoir operates to the rhythm of the filling and emptying cycles, there will be periods when the amount of energy coming from Lom Pangar may be low. 

At such times, energy from the Southern Interconnected System (SIS) could make up the difference. But at present, it is Lom Pangar that sends energy to the SIS. So the two grids complement each other. Moreover, ENEO has decided to give priority to the Lomp Pangar plant to supply Abong-Mbang.

 At what level are we with plans to electrify 150 villages in the East Region?

The highest hierarchy told me that until the last household in the East Region has electricity, it would mean that I have done nothing. I took that as a very high instruction, and we are fighting to achieve that goal. The project to electrify 150 villages is well advanced. 

Two companies, Tunisian and Moroccan, have won the contracts. As far as supplies are concerned, the metal poles are already being installed, particularly on the Messamena line from Abong-Mbang. Transformers and circuit breakers have already been delivered, and we have a timetable for connecting these villages to the network. 

We think that the first villages could be electrified between March and April, with everything completed between September and October. So when the President of the Republic said that the Lom Pangar plant and the electrification of the East would be completed by 2024, he had all that in mind. 

That's why our challenge is to respond fully to the request of the Head of State so that, before the end of the year, all the villages in the East Region are electrified and benefit from the energy from the plant that we are going to combine with floating solar power.

Given that households in rural areas generally have low incomes, what measures have you taken to ensure that they have easy access to this electricity? 

We are fortunate to have benefited funding from the African Development Bank (AfDB) via the Project for the Reinforcement and Extension of the Electricity Transport and Distribution Network (PRERETD), through which we have electrified nearly 500 villages in eight regions of the country. 

What's special about this project, which is aimed at low-income households, is that we've done something that no one has done before: free connections, with free meters. 

This means that when people in these villages already have their meters, they only have to pay what we call the advance on consumption, depending on their level of income. We will be extending this initiative to the East Region. The Development Bank of Central African States, BDEAC, is assisting us in this operation. 

The Lom Pangar plant will not only keep industries running in the East Region of the country, but will also give inhabitants with limited means access to electricity. 

This is a revolution in relation to one of the objectives of the President of the Republic, which is to increase the rate of access to electricity for the most disadvantaged populations. 

It is the role of EDC, which finds itself, after the decree of May 2020, not only be solving the problems of electricity production, but also those of transport and distribution.