OREANDA-NEWS. March 25, 2016. With more than half of Angola’s residents still waiting for access to electricity, the Angola Ministry of Energy and Water is working with GE (NYSE: GE) to add reliable, efficient capacity to the grid as quickly as possible. As part of that effort, El Sewedy Power – one of GE’s engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) partners – has ordered six of GE’s trailer-mounted TM2500+ mobile aeroderivative gas turbine packages for new power plant locations in Cazenga and Camama.

PRODEL (Empresa P?blica de Produ??o de Electricidade or company in charge of the Production of Electricity), owned by the Angola Ministry of Energy and Water, will be the operator of the plants with the social responsibility to produce sustainable and affordable power in Angola. For the first year, El Sewedy Power will develop, build, and operate the plants and then transfer them to PRODEL. The six units at the two plant locations will provide the equivalent power needed to supply more than 600,000 Angolan homes.

Euclides Morais de Brito, thermal production administrator on board of directors, PRODEL, said: “GE has been working in Angola for nearly 50 years, and well understands the needs of this region, the infrastructure and the growth potential. With these units, we can quickly and efficiently add power where Angolans need it most, while maintaining the ability to redeploy the units if necessary.”

The TM2500+ gas turbine packages are also known as GE’s power plants on wheels, and can be installed in as little as two weeks. They can run on liquid and gas fuel, can achieve full power within 10 minutes, and have proven to be highly reliable. They are ideal for providing a base-load bridge to permanent power installations or for generating backup power in support of plant shutdowns.

Joe Mastrangelo, president and CEO, gas power systems at GE Power, said: “"We are excited about winning this project because it shows the breadth of our solutions. Partnering with a company like El Sewedy Power builds from our strong regional presence and allows us to get power to our customers in record timing."

In a 2015 consortium agreement with Elsewedy Electric’s subsidiary, Elsewedy Electric T&D, GE provided 20 TM2500+ units for projects in Egypt to generate as much as 600MVA (mega volt amps) or 600 megawatts (MW) of power to meet summer demand.

GE has been operating in Angola since 1967. Today, GE employs more than 440 people in Angola, in businesses spanning across key sectors including oil and gas, power and water, and rail transportation. GE and the Angola Ministry of Energy and Water have signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) to achieve the country’s 2000 MW of additional electric power generation capacity target by the end of 2016.