Itezhi-Tezhi Hydro Power and Transmission Line Project - TA

The Itezhi-Tezhi Hydropower Project (ITT) consists of two components.

a) The development, financing construction, operation and maintenance of a 120MW base load Hydro Power Plant at the site of the existing ITT dam on the Kafue River in Zambia.

b) The new Transmission Line (of approximately 280km) via Mumbwa onto Lusaka West that will connect the power station to the national grid and through it to the South African Region. The transmission line is to be developed, constructed, financed and operated by ZESCO.

The overall project will take advantage of an existing infrastructure and add a power station to limit construction/cost/risk as well as keep environmental impact low and minimize resettlement. The new Transmission Line will wheel renewable energy produced for the benefit of Zambia and ultimately the South African region. As of end-2018, the project is near to completion.

The EU-AITF Technical Assistance grant was used to fund the Lenders’ Engineer (LE) to strengthen and accompany implementation capacity of the promoter (ZESCO) for the Project. The LE interacted closely with the Project Implementation Unit (PIU) for all matters related to physical implementation and financial follow-up (e.g. procurement, disbursement, monitoring, reporting). As the Transmission Line Kafue Livingstone Project has the same promoter and similar characteristics, the same TA (i.e. the same LE) also supported the latter project. The Service Contract was signed during the second quarter of 2013 and the LE carried out his assignments until June 2016.