DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - Aug. 20, 2015 - PRLog -- Ruaha River Power Company Limited announced today that the Energy and Environment Partnership/Southern and East Africa (“EEP”) has approved a €630,000 grant to partially fund construction of the Company’s mini-grid distribution network near the village of Malolo in the Kilosa District in Central Tanzania (“Malolo Initiative”). Funding for the grant is being provided by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Austrian Development Agency, and the UK Department for International Development.
Ruaha Power and Continental Energy Corporation (a Ruaha Power shareholder) submitted a joint-proposal to EEP in April 2015, during EEP’s 11th Call for Proposals. Ruaha Power is the implementing partner. Over the past several months, Ruaha Power’s CFO John Tate has worked with EEP staff as they have undertaken an extensive and detailed evaluation of the Company’s business plan for the Malolo Initiative. The executed grant was delivered to the Company on 19 August 2015.
The Malolo Initiative is an integrated hybrid mini-grid that is expected to connect about 1,600 households and small businesses in Malolo and 3 nearby villages. A solar photovoltaic system will provide daytime power and will be integrated into a biomass/diesel component for power during the evening hours. The power generation facilities are largely completed and over 400 customers are on the waiting list for connection to the first phase of the mini-grid. Construction of the distribution network will begin when final environmental clearance is granted, which is expected within 60 days.
Ruaha Power’s CFO John Tate commented on the Grant, “We have received an enormous amount of support for our rural on and off-grid initiatives in Tanzania. In addition to the EEP grant for the Malolo Initiative, our hydropower projects have received support from the USTDA (United States Trade Development Agency) under the Power Africa Program, and the REA (Tanzania’s Rural Energy Agency) under the World Bank sponsored TEDAP program. We appreciate the vote of confidence these institutions and agencies have shown in our projects. We look forward to turning the lights on in Malolo in early 2016.”
Ruaha Power Director Mike Bess, continued, “When the EEP 11th Call for Proposals was announced, we were convinced that the Malolo Initiative represented a good fit with the stated goals for the program. John and I worked together closely to develop a proposal that is comprehensive, practical, and represents a business model which we believe can be replicated and leveraged in other Tanzanian rural communities. At Ruaha Power we are working diligently to build a renewable energy platform that is scalable and delivers quick-to-market, sustainable energy solutions to underserved rural Tanzanian customers.”
About the Companies: Ruaha Power is committed to profitably developing and operating customized hybrid and standalone grid and off-grid electrical power generation distribution networks that supply underserved rural and small urban markets of Tanzania.
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This press release contains statements which constitute forward-looking statements within the meaning of the US securities laws, and may be (but are not necessarily) identified by the use of phrases such as “will”, “expect”, “anticipate”, “believe” and “envisage”. By their nature, forward-looking statements involve risk and uncertainty because they relate to events and depend on circumstances that will occur in the future and may be outside Ruaha Power’s control. Actual results and developments may differ materially from those expressed or implied in such statements because of a number of factors, including levels of demand and market prices, the impact of foreign currency exchange rates on market prices and operating costs, operational problems, political uncertainty and economic conditions in relevant areas of the world, the actions of competitors, activities by governmental authorities such as changes in taxation or regulation and other factors over which Ruaha Power has limited control.
Related Link(s): ruahapower.com
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Ruaha River Power Company Announces Grant Award from the Energy and Environmental Partnership for Southern and Eastern Africa
August 20, 2015 at 04:00 AM EDT
