Project Developer: Luponde Hydro Ltd.
Project Partners: AECF, REA
Project Status: 0.9 MW hydro unit (Phase 1) is operational (commissioned in 2019), Phase 2 (2.0 MW unit) is still under construction.
The Luponde Hydro Power and Rural Electrification Project, located in the Njombe Region, (Southern Tanzanian Highlands, about 40km from Njombe town) is an integrated, private, renewable energy infrastructure project, consisting of two adjacent hydro sites totalling 2.9 MW and an associated rural network. The economy in the project area is dominated by agricultural activities, industrial and smallholder tea farming, small timber plantations, plus various subsistence farming activities. The project is being developed in cooperation with the AECF and REA.
The project will supply approximately 17.2 GWh of grid quality, renewable electricity per year to 1) a total of six villages, which are either adjacent to the site or along the power line, and 2) TANESCO (the National Utility) taking up the rest/bulk of the electricity produced, under a Standardized Power Purchase Agreement (SPPA).
The rural distribution network is already operational and managed as a subsidiary of RVE’s own distribution company, Mwenga Power Services Ltd, which purchases bulk power from Luponde Hydro Limited and retails it to currently about 1,200 customers (the project is targeting a total of 1,400 rural customers within the next year).
