DRC: The National Authority of Electricity speeds up modernization of Energy Infrastructure

Kinshasa, May 25^th, 2025 (CPA) – The National Authority of the Electricity (Snel), through its technical teams, is working to restore and modernize vital energy infrastructures in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), in particular the Tshopo hydroelectric power station (in the north-eastern part of the DRC), Inga II and the Mbuji-Mayi hydroelectric power station (in the central part of the country), CPA learnt on Saturday from an administrative source. ‘From the equatorial forest of Tshopo to the colossal facilities of Inga, via the diamond plains of Mbuji-Mayi, teams are working to restore and modernize the country’s vital energy infrastructure, with a series of large-scale technical interventions being carried out by the National Authority of Electricity  (Snel)’, announced the Congolese public electricity operator. According to the source, at the Tshopo hydroelectric power station in the province of the same name, technicians have been reassembling the G1 unit, which is progressing at a steady pace. In line with the company’s schedule, this strategic unit will be back in operation in August. At Inga II, located in the province of Kongo Central in the south-west of the country, a symbol of the Congo River’s hydroelectric potential, the source added, a high-precision operation was under way. ‘The German giant Voith Hydro, prime contractor for the G25 rehabilitation project, successfully handled, moved and installed the alternator rotor in its shaft’. The source reports that in Mbuji-Mayi, the capital of Kasai Oriental province, ‘the G1 unit at the thermal power station has just received a new communication module, installed by the DPR/AC technical team’. Start-up and load tests are under way, with the aim of guaranteeing a stable power supply in a town that has long suffered from chronic load shedding. These combined efforts, as indicated by the source, are supported by increased local expertise and international technical partnerships, and are gradually redrawing the energy map of the DRC.ACP/