(Business in Cameroon) – During a visit to the Nachtigal dam site on September 19, 2024, Cameroon’s Minister of Water and Energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba, announced that the Kribi gas plant (216 MW) is once again shut down. This is due to unpaid debts owed to Eneo, the country’s electricity distributor, by Globeleq, the independent producer that owns the facility.
“Globeleq initially reduced the production at the Kribi plant before shutting it down completely. Recently, we have observed that Kribi is supplying 14 MW to the grid,” said an internal source at Eneo.
Despite most units at Kribi being offline and the low water levels affecting the Ntem River, which reduced production at the Memve’ele dam to 100 MW (from an installed capacity of 211 MW), Cameroon currently faces an electricity production deficit of about 30 MW, according to Eneo. “The deficit could have been much larger if not for a combination of favorable factors that helped offset the losses from the Kribi shutdown and the reduced output from Memve’ele,” the source added.
These favorable factors include a drop in electricity demand from households and businesses during the rainy season, as well as the gradual commissioning of units at the new Nachtigal plant. Since the first unit went online in June 2024, Nachtigal’s output has steadily increased from 60 MW in June to 120 MW in August, and then to 180 MW as of September 19. Minister Eloundou Essomba stated, “The goal is to commission an additional unit each month. We expect to have the fourth unit online by the end of October, with all seven units operational by the end of January 2025.”
However, internal sources in the electricity sector warn that starting in October-November 2024, the anticipated rise in demand from households and businesses may exceed the increased production capacity of Nachtigal alone. Significant challenges remain to ensure a stable supply for consumers.
“For the second half of 2024 and beyond, stakeholders in the electricity system are closely monitoring water levels in the northern regions, as well as in the interconnected southern network that covers seven of the country’s ten regions. They are focused on filling reservoirs, bringing Nachtigal online, and investing in transport and distribution networks to ensure energy from Nachtigal can be delivered. Efforts are also underway to restore the financial balance in the sector,” Eneo detailed in its latest report on electricity service.
