The CONCO Group with three decades of Africa-wide experience in distribution, transmission and power infrastructure development, is contributing significantly to the development of electrical infrastructure across Africa, having secured large scale projects that will assist countries like Ethiopia and Tanzania to strengthen their economies.
The company was appointed the EPC provider for the Addis Ababa Power HV Network Rehabilitation and Upgrading Project in Ethiopia in 2016. The project is expected to have a significant socio-economic impact on Addis Ababa, which has recently received an upgrade in voltage and capacity levels for the first time in decades.
CONCO is due to complete a major turnkey project in Tanzania which was undertaken for TANESCO, the country’s electricity supply authority. This project includes constructing and rehabilitating several substations in the Kilimanjaro and Arusha areas of the country. The main objective of the project is to improve the quality and reliability of the power supply of TANESCO’s 33/11 kV distribution system and to capture the unmet power demands in the main supply centres of Arusha and Kilimanjaro.
Malawi is another example of a country which has taken steps to substantially upgrade its ageing transmission and distribution network. CONCO recently secured a major contract in the country for the first time. The contract entails upgrading and rehabilitating substations, EPC of a number of new 33/11 kV and 66/33 kV substations, and EPC of several new 33 kV overhead lines. This project has been made possible by funding received from the US via the Millennium Challenge Corporation (MCC). The Government of Malawi established the Millennium Challenge Account – Malawi (MCA-M) to serve as the executive agency for implementation of projects financed by this fund, with the goal of reducing poverty, stimulating economic growth, and increasing household incomes through targeted infrastructure investments in the energy sector.
In South Africa, CONCO is in the third and final year of the major Sebenza project which, once connected, will result in a dramatic increase in grid capacity in Gauteng.
On the renewable energy front, CONCO has successfully completed large scale, complex projects which form part of the government’s renewable energy independent power producer procurement (REIPPP) programme. The company has undertaken the electrical balance of plant for over nine wind farms and four solar photovoltaic (PV) parks, including grid connections.
CONCO Energy Solutions (CONCO ES), a subsidiary, has been developing human machine interface (HMI) systems for wind farms which allow the operators to remotely control the wind farm operation and are fully integrated with the wind turbine. Further renewable energy successes include the securing of an EPC contract in Namibia for two 5 MW solar PV plants.
Leveraging CONCO’s presence into the UAE, CONCO ES scooped its first contract from SEL (Middle East) for the design and engineering of a SCADA system for a substation owned by Dubai Electricity and Water Authority. This contract involves CONCO ES engineering a HMI system which will monitor the plant and generate reports for longer-term data storage and analysis.
The securing of these international contracts is largely as a result of the group’s strategy to regionalise its business into South and Central Africa, East Africa, West Africa and the Middle East. The company is pleased to be contributing to improving infrastructure in those countries which will in turn help to improve their economies and uplift the citizens.
All contracts undertaken by CONCO have a strong social responsibility component and in the case of its flagship project in Ethiopia, the company has demonstrated its commitment to reducing significant impacts on local communities and safeguarding the livelihoods of those affected.
For more information contact Clive Pillay, Chief Commercial Officer, CONCO Group, Tel +27 11 805 4281, Email: clive.pillay@concogrp.com