Chinese Firm to Build Coal Plant in Botswana

Everyone knows that China is building coal-fired power plants at a furious rate in China, but less well-known are its construction projects abroad, including in India and Indonesia. And on Dec. 1, CIC Energy announced that it had selected China’s power station builder Shanghai Electric Group Co. Ltd. (SEC) to be the EPC contractor for a 1,320-MW power plant at its $3 billion Mmamabula coal mine and electricity generation plant in Botswana.

“SEC is perhaps the largest power station manufacturer in the world and SEC’s participation in this project is a major asset to the [Mmamabula Energy Project],” said Mr. Greg Kinross, president of CIC Energy in a press release.

Engineering News-Record’s listing of the top 225 international contractors listed SEC as number 148 earlier this year.

Tradingmarkets.com reported that, in 2007, SEC manufactured 30 GW of power plant capacity. SEC is a vertically integrated company with subsidiaries that provide all of the key components for a power station, including boilers, turbines, generators, and flue gas desulphurization equipment. SEC also cooperates with other vendors (including Siemens, Alstom, and Foster Wheeler).

The Botswana power station will comprise two dry-cooled supercritical 660-MW units (gross) using flue gas desulfurization.

Construction is expected to start in mid-2009, after contracts have been worked out with South African electricity utility Eskom and Botswana Power Corp.
 

Sources: Trading Markets, miningmx.com, Shanghai Electric Co.