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Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ministry of Planning

National Investment Promotion Agency

ANAPI

Energy



1. Legal framework

The energy sector in the DRC is regulated by Law No. 14/011 of 17 June 2014, which aims in particular at:

  • The effective liberalization of the sector;
  • The promotion and harmonious development of the supply in urban, periurban and rural areas;
  • The coverage of electricity needs of all categories by quality supplies;
  • The guarantee of fair competition between operators and users’ rights.

This law applies to the activities of production, transmission, distribution, import, export and marketing of electrical energy carried out by any operator.

2. Government Vision

Energy is the engine of development in that it enables economic, agricultural and industrial takeoff. It is declared as the first economic sector of the Mandate of His Excellency the President of the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Head of State.

To achieve this, the Government’s vision is to ensure greater accessibility of all social strata and national grassroots communities to reliable electric power by increasing the available power by 600 MW, by rehabilitating, modernizing, extending and building new infrastructure and increasing the rate of electric service.

Over the period 2018-2022, the government intends to continue in this momentum to improve access to electricity for production units and urban and rural populations in order to: (i) guarantee, by 2025, reliable access to electricity for all social groups, with emphasis on rural electrification; (ii) restructure the SNEL with a view to "transforming the electricity sector into a pillar of revitalization and growth of the Congolese economy"; (iii) develop sub-regional interconnection to facilitate the export of electricity; (iv) and promote all sources of renewable energy other than hydroelectricity, including the rational and sustainable use of wood to replace diesel in thermal power stations in isolated grids.

3. Potentialities

The Congo River, with its basin straddling the Equator, offers the DRC an exploitable energy potential estimated at 100,000 MW, spread over 780 sites located in 145 territories and 76,000 villages. This potential represents about 37% of the total African potential and nearly 6% of the world potential.

The DRC also has significant potential in renewable energy resources such as biomass, wind, solar, biogas, biofuel, etc.

With regard to the Grand INGA project in particular, it should be noted that its potential power is of the order of 39,000 MW.

 

The energy situation of the Provinces is as follows:

Provinces

Energy situation

Kinshasa
  • Solar potential: average sunshine varies between 3.22 and 4.89 kWh/m2/d;
  • Wind potential: the average annual wind speed measured at a height of 10 m is 1.3 m/s;
  • Electrification rate: 44.1%.

Former Katanga Province
  • Solar potential: 6.5 kWh/m²/d
  • Wind potential: average wind speed of more than 5m/sec;
  • Installed capacity is 567 MW, while current demand is estimated at nearly 900 MW (including 600 MW for the mining sector alone).

Kongo-Central
  • The hydroelectric potential is estimated at 64,000 MW (560,640 GWh) per year;
  • The Inga site alone represents 69% of the potential (i.e. 44,000 MW).

Former Orientale Province
  • The overall potential of the currently identified sites is estimated at 7200MW;
  • The electrification rate: 3.6%

Kasaï Oriental
  • The electrification rate in the province is very low (0.5%);
  • The energy needs (2012) are estimated at 264,774 MW against a current (2012) insignificant installed capacity (1.94 MW), thus highlighting a very important gap which is a drain on all sectors;
  • Solar potential: 4.4 and 5.14 kWh/m2/d.

Kasaï Occidental
  • The hydroelectric potential, amounts to 103 MW;
  • The rate of electrification is very low: 1% with a non-existent driving force;
  • The total installed capacity amounts to 31.7 MW, of which 20.7 MW at standstill, representing 65.2% of the installed capacity;
  • The solar potential varies between 5.16 kWh/m2/d and 5.26 kWh/m2/d.

Nord-Kivu
  • The current electrification rate is estimated at 3.1%;
  • Installable power is up to 240.3 MW;
  • Biomass potential: annual energy production can reach 76,583.74 MWh;
  • Solar potential: average sunshine varies between 4 and 5.5 kWh/m2/d;
  • Natural gas: the potential could reach 57.00 billion Nm3.

Sud-Kivu
  • Hydroelectric potential: The installed capacity can reach 1050.00 MW;
  • Biomass potential: The annual producible energy can reach 109,878.88 MWh/year;
  • Solar potential: Average sunshine reaches 5 kWh/m2/d;
  • Wind potential: the average annual speed is less than 5 m/s;
  • Natural gas: the potential could reach 57.00 billion Nm3;
  • Annual electrification rate: 7.9%.

Maniema
  • The electrification rate is very low 3.0%;
  • The solar potential: situated in a band between 3.5 and 6.75 kWh/m2/d);
  • Available production is: 2.1MW.

Kwilu, Kwango and Maï Ndombe
  • Hydroelectric potential estimated at 104 MW;
  • Solar potential: a sunshine varying between 4.5 and 7 kWh/m2/day;
  • The electrification rate is 0.6%, second last at the national level;
  • The province has a huge gap of around 408.35 MW between supply and demand: the installed capacity of the existing infrastructure amounts to 22.66 MW, compared to a capacity of 431.01 MW to cover current energy needs.

Nord Ubangui, Sud-UbanguiandEquateur
  • The electrification rate: Very low ≈1.4% while the province has several identified sites in its northern part;
  • High potential in biomass (about 40,000,000 hectares of forest out of the 86 million that DRC abounds in;
  • The energy needs (2012) of the province are estimated at 426,085 MW (all the territories of the Equator), against an availability of about 26,770 MW (2010);
  • Good level of sunshine with values between 5 and 5.5 kWh /m²/d.

Source: Atlas of the Ministry of Hydraulic Resources, Kinshasa 2014.

Out of a total installed capacity in the DRC estimated at 2,516 MW, SNEL has a generating capacity of about 2,416 MW, i.e. 96% of the national installed capacity, mainly made up of hydroelectric power stations. However, actual production is only 6,000 to 7,000 GWh. Self-producers share the remaining 100 MW of the installed capacity, i.e. 4%.

Despite the country’s enormous potential, much of the territory remains without electricity due to the obsolescence of installations dating from the colonial period and the lack of new investors in the sector. The country’s electrification rate remains low at 9.6% and the government’s vision is to increase the rate of service to 32% by 2030.

 

4. Achievements

i). Projects Completed:

ii). Projects in progress

§ SNEL 

§ VIRUNGA SARL (Nord-Kivu)

§ EDC (Electricité du Congo)

§ Power line (Transport du courant)

§ Energie du Kivu

§ SOCODE SARL

§ KIPAY (Busanga Dam in Kolwezi)

§ KATENDE

§ KAKOBOLA

§ Congolaise de Construction Electromécanique (CCE) / Construction Electric Cabins

§ Blue Energy

§ Energie du Kasaï " ENERKA“: Hydroelectricity

§ Energie du Central Kasai" ENERKAC"

§ Société de Techniques Spéciales, "STS".

§ Energie du Nord Kivu "ENK Sarl"

 

But the country does not have sufficient financial resources to meet construction needs.

 



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Democratic Republic of the Congo

Ministry of Planning

National Investment Promotion Agency

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33C, Boulevard du 30 Juin,
Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of the Congo

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