Although having great energy potential, Brazzaville and Kinshasa, the two capitals separated just by the Congo River, are experiencing serious electricity supply problems. To try to remedy this, they signed on Monday in Brazzaville an energy cooperation agreement.
With our correspondent in Brazzaville, Loïcia Martial
The agreement aims to materialize the project called “Energy Friendship Loop” between Congo-Brazzaville and the Democratic Republic of Congo.
” A first phase will consist in strengthening the transmission capacities of the lines between the Congo power plant in Pointe-Noire and the Inga hydroelectric power plant in the DRC via Brazzaville. », Specifies the agreement.
One of its signatories, Bruno Jean-Richard Itoua, Minister of Hydrocarbons of Congo-Brazzaville, defines its importance: ” The energy friendship loop, at the heart of a new integrated energy architecture in Central Africa, will supply several high and very high voltage lines intended to supply energy in particular to the mining industry in the Democratic Republic of the Congo “.
In Congo-Brazzaville, the project should make it possible to develop the gas produced by the Italian oil company Eni.
Despite the investments and the increase in installed capacity, which has gone from 89 to more than 800 megawatts over the past twenty years, the populations of Brazzaville and Pointe-Noire are victims of cuts and other load shedding. Same observation in the DRC. The agreement was concluded for an indefinite period and will be subject to an evaluation every five years. But no indication was given on the cost or financing of the project.
In a joint declaration, Presidents Denis Sassou-Nguesso and Félix Tshisekedi invited the other countries of the sub-region to join this ” integrative project “.