“The Project Can Provide More Energy Than Expected”

Charles Nkwawir Shiynteng, Technical Director at Mekin Hydroelectric Development Corporation.

Can you give us an update on the Mekin project?

Construction started in June 2012 and had to last for three years. The project is the first among projects that will be undertaken by Mekin Hydro Electricity Development Corporation. It was carried out by the China National Electric Engineering Corporation. In 2015, we had a problem with the Chinese that caused work to be suspended for over seven months. However, the first 5MW were released from here same year when work resumed. In 2016, we had all the civil engineering construction works completed. The next task was to connect the project to the load points where users of electricity in homes and industries would start consuming the energy. So we started mechanical tests also known as non-load tests; checking hydro mechanical components to ensure they are functioning well. We did that and everything was good. Then we moved to the load tests; bringing out energy and supplying to artificial loads. The turbines functioned well and gave out the expected energy. One of the turbines produced 5.3MW instead of the expected 5MW which indicates we can have more energy than expected during favorable conditions of rainfall which is the main component of production (water).

How will you overcome hurdles that have delayed distribution of the energy to users?

When we injected our hydro electrical energy into ENEO lines, we realized they had broken electricity poles, obsolete equipments and structures. Each time we sent electricity we had problems. In some instances it came back to us and had a negative impact on our turbines at the production center. To solve the problem, we agreed on a stand-alone mode. This means ENEO would give us the D-34 line; cutting off the current line from Mbalmayo and leaving it for us to supply energy on the...

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