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Zaire Electricity
Electricity production is concentrated in Bas-Zaïre and
Shaba
regions, and about 95 percent of all electricity is sold
in
Kinshasa and Shaba. An estimated 73 percent of SNEL's
sales are
made in Shaba, 57 percent of the total to the mining
parastatal
Gécamines. In early 1992, SNEL experienced considerable
losses
following the destruction and looting in the country. It
also
lacked spare parts. By late 1992, the electrical system
was nearing
breakdown.
Home consumption of electricity and public lighting
account for
only a small percentage of electricity produced; most
electricity
consumption is closely tied to the copper market. Demand
stagnated
during the slump from 1974 through 1979, recovered
slightly in
1980, and then dropped again in 1982 and 1983 before
recovering and
reaching a record high of 5,455 gigawatt hours in 1986.
Demand
again declined in the early 1990s.
Zaire has tremendous hydroelectric potential (estimated
at
100,000 megawatts), accounting for half of the
hydroelectric
potential of the entire African continent. Installed
capacity was
estimated at 2,486 megawatts in 1987. Hydropower, in fact,
accounts
for 95 percent of all electricity produced in the country,
the rest
coming from small thermal units.
The largest hydroelectric site is on the lower part of
the
Congo River, forty kilometers upstream from its mouth,
where the
river drops 300 meters to sea level. One hundred meters of
this
drop is located in a twelve-kilometer stretch at the site
of the
Inga dams barrage. Sketchy colonial plans to tap this
source of
power were postponed because of the political uncertainty
at the
end of the colonial period and the dearth of customers for
the
immense quantities of electric power to be produced.
Inga I, a dam and generating facility built on this
site in
1972, has a generating capacity of 300 megawatts. The
adjacent Inga
II dam has a generating capacity of 1,000 megawatts. In
1986 the
two produced 3,100 million kilowatt hours of electricity.
The high-voltage transmission line from the dams to the
Shaba
mining region was the longest direct current line in the
world at
the time of its construction. It stretches 1,725
kilometers from
the Inga I and Inga II dams in Bas-Zaïre to Kolwezi, the
northernmost mining center in the Shaba copper-cobalt
mining area.
The project was chosen over competing ideas for power
delivery to
Shaba, including the construction of a new dam in Shaba
itself. The
high-voltage transmission line was intended to transmit
about 1,200
megawatts of power to Shaba. However, it is grossly
underutilized,
with installed capacity at only about 560 megawatts and
actual
transmission to Shaba at about 200 megawatts. By late
1992,
observers feared that the vital Inga-Shaba power line
could not
long remain operational. Its upkeep has been problematic
since the
departure in late 1991, following widespread rioting and
looting,
of the foreign technicians and mechanics (mostly Belgians
and
Italians) who provided most of its maintenance.
In the late 1980s, the Zairian state again demonstrated
its
fascination with hydroelectric schemes. A small
hydroelectric power
station was opened at Mobayi-Mbongo near Mobutu's
birthplace in a
remote section of Équateur Region near the border with the
Central
African Republic.
In July 1992, Zaire and Egypt reached agreement on the
construction of a high-tension electric line from the Inga
dams to
Egypt, to transmit 600 megawatts of electricity to Egypt.
Observers
believe this plan is unlikely to be realized, however. The
Inga
power stations do supply some power to neighboring Congo,
and the
potential certainly exists for Zaire to export electricity
to other
neighbors should its economic situation ever be
normalized.
Data as of December 1993
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