[Cameroon] France’s Cegelec to deliver a 105 km transmission line to electrify 150 villages
The rich eastern mining region is one of Cameroon’s most underserved electric power. The completion of the Lom Pangar Dam power plant and transport infrastructure will stimulate economic development in the region.
Between November and December 2021, the French company Cegelec, winner of the contract for the construction of the 105 km transmission line from the Lom Pangar dam (30 MW) foot plant in Bertoua, the capital of the eastern forest and mining region, will complete its work. The information leaked during the site visit on March 16, 2021 by Theodore Nsangou, the managing director of EDC, the state-owned electricity company, at the Lom Pangar plant construction site.
The transmission line, officially estimated to be worth 9 billion CFA francs, will supply 150 villages in the eastern region from the Lom Pangar dam, which will deliver the first 7.5 megawatts from the beginning of 2022, according to official forecasts. The other turbines need to be put into service gradually.
These two investments are a real boon for this part of Cameroon, hithert isolated by itself on the East Interconnected Network (RIE), and powered mainly by thermal power plants. The commissioning of the Lom Pangar-Bertoua transmission line, and the partial operation of the Lom Pangar production plant, from the beginning of 2022, will coincide with the interconnection of the East Interconnected Network (RIE) to the South Interconnected Network (RIS). This is thanks to the construction of the 225 KV high-voltage line between Yaounde, the Cameroonian capital, and Abong-Mbang in the east of the country.
The interconnection, which the government says will end in February 2022, will allow the eastern region to now be supplied from the Songloulou and Edéa power plants, whose capacity has officially increased by 150 MW during the stretching period since the Lom Pangar dam was put into the water. Coupled with the 30 MW of power expected from the Lom Pangar dam foot plant, the interconnection of RIE and RIS will enable the eastern region, rich in forest and mining resources, to permanently reduce its energy deficit, according to Invest in Cameroon.