Mekin hydroelectric power station partially restarts operation

Mekin hydroelectric power station in Cameroon has partially restarted operation. The Cameroonian Minister of Water and Energy, Gaston Eloundou Essomba recently visited the site of the Mekin hydroelectric dam for the partial commissioning of the facility.

The power plant, sited in southern region of Cameroon was originally scheduled to be commissioned in 2015. After years of delay, the facility began generating electricity in 2020 before being shut down due to a failure in the “neutral point coil

The plant now feeds 11.2 MW into the Southern Interconnected System (SIS). This is 75% of the capacity of the facility designed to deliver 15 MW. Following the repairs, Hydro Mekin, the company that operates the hydropower scheme, says production testing is continuing for the final unit of the hydropower plant to be energized in the fourth quarter of 2022.

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Delays

The electricity currently produced is supposed to benefit the populations of the councils of Sangmelima and Meyomessala in the southern region, as well as those of Mbalmayo in the central region. However, the public service company Eneo is behind in connecting the population due to delays brought about by the ongoing rehabilitation of the 30 kilovolt electricity distribution line on the Mbalmayo-Sangmelima-Ndjom Yekombo axis.

The power project which is estimated to cost US $55M is situated at the Mekin dam, located on the Dja River, a tributary of the Sangha that flows into the Congo River. The dam has a reservoir with a “central spillway” type spillway with bottom openings.

Equipped with three turbines, its power plant connects to the RIS through a 110/30 kv interconnection station located at Ndjom Yekombo. The engineer China National Electric Engineering Corporation (CNEEC), which is in charge of setting up the hydroelectric scheme, installed a 110 kV connection line over a distance of 33.1 km.