The Aggreko-Shanduka cross border power project has been awarded Africa’s Best Fast Track Power Project in 2012

Aggreko plc is the world leader in the supply of temporary power and temperature control solutions while Shanduka Group is South Africa’s black-owned investment holding company.

Located in the Mozambican border town of Ressano Garcia, the Aggreko-Shanduka power project is respected as the world’s first interim cross-border IPP (Independent Power Provider) project.

It uses the natural gas from Mozambique’s Temane gas fields and its output is being infused straight into the national grid of Mozambique on site.

The programme produces and supplies 110 MW of power to Electricidade de Mocambique (EDM), the national utility of Mozambique. It also supplies across the border to Eskom, the South African national power utility.

It is an innovative programme in terms of delivering much-needed power to South Africa and Mozambique, Aggreko said in a statement.
The judges where enthralled by the fast-track nature of the project because from the commissioning of the project, first breaking ground to being fully operational, took less than four months.

This included a huge civil infrastructure project which included the building of roads, a 1.2 km high pressure gas pipeline, gas processing and de-pressurising infrastructure, a major substation and 1.5 kilometres of 275 kV transmission line.

The project is connected to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) which links the power grids of nine Southern African countries.

Ron Sams, the Global Operations and Technology Director at Aggreko, said to realise a project of this magnitude and complexity, the global resources of Aggreko were called up to project manage and engineer the installation of Ressano Garcia.

“This capability coupled with the expertise of our partnering contractors and customers, working together as one team resulted in the successful delivery of this remarkable project,” Sams said.