Aggreko has signed a three year contract extension with Ivory Coast that sees the energy company provide the country with 200 MW of gas-fired power; the contract can also be extended for another two years.
The facility was installed in 2010 with the first phase of the project producing 70 MW. This was later increased to 100 MW in 2011 and again increased in June 2013 to 200 MW. With a booming economy and GDP growth of around 9 percent, demand for energy has been increasing steadily in recent years.
Amidou Traore, Director General, CI-Energies, said: “The 200 MW supplied from the Aggreko plant is an important component of our energy generation mix and helps us maintain supply to our customers while we develop our long-term infrastructure programmes.”
Economies across Africa are growing at a phenomenal rate resulting in an increased strain on power generation, transmission and distribution infrastructure. By adding large-scale, fast-track interim power, countries can continue to supply the energy required to sustain economic growth while governments and state utilities work on bringing new generation capacity online.
“Our project in Ivory Coast is a great example of the value Aggreko brings to its utility customers in Africa,” said Christophe Jacquin, MD, Aggreko North and West Africa. “Our solutions address shortages in power generation capacity, giving our customers the ability to maintain supply while they work to improve their systems.”
In addition to the Abidjan plant, Aggreko also runs its West African youth training initiative, The Aggreko Technical University in Ivory Coast. The programme involves an intensive training syllabus incorporating advanced technical, engineering and project operations modules. Graduates have access to fast-track employment opportunities within technical and project operations positions in the Ivory Coast and other locations in Aggreko’s network of international power projects. The programme has so far seen 18 Ivorian and West African engineers trained with 14 of these going on to graduate and join Aggreko in various locations across Africa.