Morocco's power utility plans $3.4 billion investments next 5 years

Morocco's power utility L'Office Marocain de L'Electricite (ONE) is planning 34 billion Dirhams (around US$ 3.4 million) in 2004, the energy federation said in its latest newsletter "Energy and Strategy."

ONE plans to generalize power in rural Morocco by 2007, double the Morocco-Spain interconnection and develop renewable energies through three projects, the bulletin reads.

The first project concerns two wind-generated electricity plants in Essaouira and Tangiers, to generate respectively 60 and 140 Megawatts, and bring up Morocco's total Aeolian energy production from 53 to 253 MW by 2006.

The second project is the thermo-solar plant of Ain-Mokhtar, that will produce some 220 Megawatts, and the third consists in the building, in partnership with the private sector, of a second 400 megawatt combine cycle plant in the north of Morocco.