Construction work on the Temane Thermal Power Plant (CTT), in the southern province of Inhambane in Mozambique, has been delayed due to the impact of cyclones Freddy and Filipo, which meant that commissioning was scheduled for 2024.

Cyclone Freddy occurred last year and Tropical Depression Filipo hit Inhambane province at the beginning of this year, completely flooding the site where the work is taking place, writes AIM.

With a capacity to produce 450 Megawatts of electricity, the project includes a power transmission line over 500 kilometers long.

As a result, the plant's start-up, initially scheduled for this year, has been jeopardized and is expected to take place in the second quarter of 2025, according to well-placed sources at GLOBELEQ, the entity that designed the project.

In May of this year, Samir Salé, Director of Development and Business at GLOBELEQ, which invests in the power generation sector in Mozambique, said that the project, which was budgeted at 650 million dollars, was 75% complete.

At the time, the source assured that the work had progressed despite the negative impacts of Cyclones Freddy and Tropical Depression Filipo.

In assessing the impacts, it was clear that the constraints had been overcome promptly and work was proceeding at a fast pace to make up for lost time in order to meet the commissioning deadlines scheduled for the third half of this year.

At the time, the level of construction work meant that commissioning and testing of the installed equipment and interconnection to the grid would not change, a factor that could allow the project to start the full operation phase between the end of 2024 and the beginning of 2025, according to the project plan and the Mozambican government's prospects.

"The project is going relatively well. We were hit by two cyclones which had some impact on the progress of the works, but we are working with our contractor and Electricidade de Moçambique to recover as quickly as possible," said Samir Salé in May this year.

The work was carried out on the mechanical and electrical side, to integrate all the gas turbines and the steam turbine, and then followed the mechanical and steam cycle testing phase.

It should be noted that Mozambican President Filipe Nyusi, during his last term in office, pointed to CTT as the biggest post-independence energy generation project, which could take the electricity infrastructure to new heights.

Once completed, the project will be able to supply energy to 1.5 million households under the Universal Access to Energy Program by 2030.

This is the first gas-fired power station of this size, which will produce clean energy, an important factor particularly at a time when Mozambique is setting the guidelines for its Energy Transition Strategy.

CTT is 85% owned by Mozambique Power Invest (MPI) and 15% by Sasol Africa, where MPI is owned by Globeleq (76%) and EDM (24%). (AIM)