Ruaha Energy Announces Award of Power Purchase Agreement for the Company's First Utility-Scale Solar PV Facility in Tanzania

DAR ES SALAAM, Tanzania - Jan. 31, 2018 - PRLog -- The Company executed a Standard Power Purchase Agreement ("SPPA") with TANESCO (Tanzania Electric Supply Company Limited) today. This is the first SPPA TANESCO has approved since 2016 and the first executed by any company under the 2017 Guidelines which were adopted in late October 2017. The SPPA is a 25 year agreement between the Company and TANESCO for delivery of 0.95 MW of power to the main grid from a Company owned facility in an industrial area in the heart of the new Kilosa Town.

The Company has partnered with Cronimet Mining Power Solutions GmbH ("CRONIMET") on the project which represents the Company's first grid-connected Solar PV facility in a planned portfolio of six one MW facilities being developed in the Kilosa District.

Site preparation and plant equipment acquisition activities are underway. First power will be delivered by year-end 2018. The facility is being developed in Ruaha Energy's 400,000 square foot Kilosa Town complex which also includes Ruaha Energy's Regional Operations and Staging Center.

The plant also forms a part of CRONIMET's develoPPP.de programme, where CRONIMET partners with the German Investment & Development Organisation (DEG) in order to facilitate knowledge and skill transfer in the local renewable solar energy sector. Under the program the facility will be used as a demonstration plant for training purposes to universities, programmes and individuals.

The Company's CEO, John Tate remarked, "Executing the SPPA represents a significant milestone for the Company. This facility will serve as our anchor project in the Kilosa District and with the completion of our Regional Operations Center, will give us a platform for a quick launch of our Solar PV portfolio over the next couple years."

Cronimet Managing Director Rollie Armstrong noted, "John and I have been researching the Tanzania utility scale solar market for several years and have developed what we are convinced is a replicable, quick-to-market, utility scale solar PV power generation model. To see our first plant actually become a reality convinces us that the model we have designed is viable."

The facility is a solar photovoltaic power plant that will be connected to the main grid. CRONIMET designed the facility which will be built, jointly owned, operated, and maintained by Ruaha Energy and CRONIMET. Partial funding for the project was supplied through a grant awarded to the Project by EEP (the Energy and Environmental Partnership for Southern and Eastern Africa), a program funded by the Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland, the Austrian Development Agency, and the UK Department for International Development.

Ruaha Energy brings "power to the people" by increasing customer's access to reliable and affordable energy. The Company strives to implement rural-based, sustainable, clean energy solutions that optimize the renewable resources available in each market or village it serves. Our energy solutions help accelerate economic development in the communities we serve. Electric power brings economic power.

Since 2013, CRONIMET has funded the greenfield development of utility scale PV power plants across Africa. Early results are quantifiable in a number of "Africa's firsts" including the first megawatt scale PV/diesel hybrid power plant supplying an off-grid mining company with electricity through a PPA and Namibia's first utility scale grid connected PV power plant. As CRONIMET continues to develop and finance IPPs and execute EPC and O&M activities throughout sub-Saharan Africa, the value added social-economic benefits to local stakeholder compounds.

http://ruahaenergy.com


About Ruaha Energy: Ruaha Energy is a Tanzanian registered private company that is committed to profitably developing and operating customized hybrid and standalone grid and off-grid electrical power generation facilities and distribution networks that supply green energy to underserved rural and small urban markets in Tanzania.

About CRONIMET: CRONIMET is a leading African PV developer and strategic investor. CRONIMET's expertise extends along the PV project value chain, from greenfield land development, to technical planning, IPP funding, EPC contracting and O&M Services. CRONIMET is active throughout Africa, targeting 21 countries together with the KfW/DEG, to develop PV power plants and PPAs with public and private sectors. CRONIMET operates subsidiaries in Namibia, South Africa and Botswana and forward offices in Abidjan, Ivory Coast and Dar el Salaam, Tanzania.