OREANDA-NEWS. Sumitomo Corporation and Sumitomo Corporation Africa Pty Ltd (both companies hereinafter collectively referred to as “the Sumitomo Corporation Group”) will be participating in a 340-megawatt combined cycle  power plant project at Kpone, about 25 kilometers from Accra, the capital of the Republic of Ghana, one of the largest power plant projects in that country.

Installed capacity in Ghana is about 2,800 megawatts and nearly half of the electric power generation is produced by Hydro Power Plants. However, they don’t produce enough electric power generation, especially in the dry season, and planned outage is regularly in place because of the power shortages. Ghana’s electric power demand is growing about 7% per year as its population increase.

The Sumitomo Corporation Group acquires 28% of the project company’s shares in September 2014, and starts construction in autumn 2014; commercial operation is expected to begin in summer 2017. The Project produced the electric power for approximately 600,000 households in Ghana, and will be sold to Ghana’s public electricity distribution company over a period of 20 years from the start of commercial operation. The total project costs will be about 90 billion yen, the majority of which will be procured through project finance. The Project will be the first one which covered by the Nippon Export and Investment Insurance (NEXI) in sub-Saharan Africa.

The Sumitomo Corporation Group will utilize its know-how in constructing, operating the power plant and its maintenance, and will take a leading role in ensuring steady progress in construction and reliable plant operation by its dispatch a chief technical officer and a chief financial officer to the project company.

The Sumitomo Corporation Group has designated sub-Saharan Africa and other countries (Note1) a “Group development region” for the strategic allocation of management resources in a medium- to long-term perspective. In the electric power sector, the Sumitomo Corporation Group has constructed and operated a 100-megawatt wind power plant in the Republic of South Africa, and received an order for the construction of the first natural gas-fired combined cycle power plant in the United Republic of Tanzania as a EPC contractor. Electric power needs in sub-Saharan Africa are expected to increase sixfold by 2040, and the Sumitomo Corporation Group hopes to build on the Project to actively contribute to regional development through electric power plant projects.