The funds provided for in the general state budget for the 2023 financial year are aimed at strengthening the electricity transmission networks of the city of Douala, in particular to meet strong industrial demand.
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Of the CFAF 100 billion budget for the Littoral region this year, CFAF 25 billion is allocated to strengthening the electricity transmission network in the city of Douala. Investments in this part of the electricity sector are badly needed. It is not actually the production that is lacking. Because, good prospects are displayed as for the availability of the production of the Nachtigal dam and the development of certain projects in the north. The challenge for the sector is above all the development of substantial transport infrastructure, the failures of which are cited as one of the key factors in the absence of energy. Investments are all the more important in view of the strong demand, particularly industrial. It is expressed by 05 major sectors of activity: metallurgy, food processing, cement works, real estate and services.
At the national level, industrial demand over the period 2022-2024 is estimated at 380 MW. Industrialists in Douala represent nearly half of this demand. The Industrial Zone of Bonabéri, Douala East and South-West requires a little more than 104 MW in the short term more precisely in the industrial zones, the zones of Bomono and Bekoko. Douala East needs just over 53 MW for the industrial zones of Bassa, Dibamba and the Ngodi Bakoko Zone. If the detail on the use of 25 billion FCFA has not been revealed, we know that the National Electricity Transport Company (SONATREL) has planned investments to meet this industrial demand.
Already, in August 2021 during a consultation in Douala with industrialists, the government had accused the overload of the two main transport lines which supply the city. The executives of the Ministry of Water and Energy had then indicated that work is planned to strengthen the capacities of transformer stations and the creation of a new transmission line. According to them, this work should begin with the strengthening of the transformation capacities of source substations and interconnection substations. The acquisition of 10 transformers in total for Yaoundé and Bekoko in Douala, Sonatrel had specified.
Nothing filters on the current level of this work. But we have seen the installation of new power transformers at the Logbaba interconnection station and at the Bekoko interconnection station. The Bassa industrial zone, for example, which experienced a fire in October 2022, in the source station called a large account, also received a new transformer last February. The same is true of the Bonabéri industrial zone, the post of which also caught fire at the end of 2022.
