IED, through its subsidiary IED Invest, has been operating a biomass power plant in northern Cambodia since 2018. This plant, with a capacity of 1MW, provides electricity to up to 20,000 households through a process of gasification from the burning of organic waste.

This combustion produces a significant amount of coal, which we are now able to recycle entirely into briquettes, which are used massively in Cambodia for cooking. These briquettes which are sold exclusively to wholesalers, redistributed in cities to supply restaurants, generate financial profits and the creation of a dozen jobs.

The process of making briquettes involves several successive operations:

1. Coal first passes through a grinder to reduce the size of coal grains to optimize the quality of the briquettes;

2. The particles then pass through a blender, in which they are mixed with cassava, which acts as a binder. This process provides the ideal consistency of maintenance of the briquettes and for combustion;

3. The mixture then passes through an extruder to obtain the desired shape for the briquettes;

4. Out of the extruder is a cutting machine, which allows to obtain precisely the final size of briquettes;

5. These briquettes are then placed on trays to dry for several hours in a dedicated room.

Finally, they are arranged in 35kg bags and transported by trucks to be sold to restaurants or homes.

IED Invest recently equipped itself with a new extruder to increase its production capacity, which now reaches 50 tons of briquettes per month. This activity has enabled the hiring of 8 people dedicated to its proper functioning, and allows each to fuel the monthly consumption of about 2500 households.

The launch ceremony for the SBEE network restructuring and extension project in the municipality of Abomey-Calavi and the Atlantic Department  (PRERA) was held on 06 March 2020. This project is part of the modernization of the energy sector and better access to electricity in Benin.

IED is responsible for  technicalmanagement, as well as social intermediation activities with regard to subscribers  (census, subscription management, geolocation, etc.).

The ceremony was attended by many officials  and personalities  and was presided over by Energy Minister  Monsieur  Dona Jean-Claude HOUSSOU.

The objective of this project, which includes the construction of 63/20 kV substations at COCOCODJI and AKASSATO, as well as the construction of a 63 kV underground link and a reinforcement of the electricity grids in the municipality of Abomey-Calavi, is to develop the rate of increased access to electricity in the Atlantic department up to 50%, to improve the availability and the quality of electricity, to make networks more reliable and ensure better voltage distribution and stability while reducing the frequency and the duration of power cuts. It aims to connect more than 50,000 new subscribers to the SBEE network.

This project is financed for an amount up to 65.3 billion CFA francs by the French Development Agency (AFD), the European Investment Bank (EIB), the European Union and the Benin Electric Energy Company (SBEE).

This project launched at the end of June 2019 in  Cameroon is carried by the IED group, the Ministry of Energy of Cameroon, the Rural Electricity Agency, ARSEL , the company ENEO, with financial support from the European Union and a loan from the bank BGFI.

The French Global Environment Fund, invest's historic partner in Asia, is also supporting this project, which will benefit thousands of users while preserving the environment.

In Cameroon, the construction of the Little Hydroelectric Power Plant of Mbakaou Carrière continues for the moment, work is still in progress.

On March 5, 2020 Anjali Shanker, Managing Director of IED and member of the Scientific and Technical Committee participated in the 25th anniversary of the FFEM (The French Facility for Global Environment)  with Sabrina Krief, primatologist professor at the Museum of Natural History, Sébastien Treyer Director General of the Institute of Sustainable Development and International Relations, Chairman of the Scientific and Technical Committee of the FFEM and Thomas Landrain co-founder and chairman of the One.

In her speech, Anjali Shanker DG of IED praised the rare quality of listening and the flexibility shown by the FFEM in its many initiatives supporting sustainable development. All too often, these initiatives face blockages such as over-regulation that annihilates initiatives or the complexity of financial closures and the risk aversion of funders.

Sustainable development has historically been at the heart of our approach. IED is working closely with the FFEM to undertake innovative actions on sustainable development, which is reflected  in the project of  venergy energy development of agricultural industries waste through the local appropriation and deploymentof gasogens in Côte d'Ivoire, Benin and West Africa.

The objective of this project is to develop a viable solution for the recovery of agricultural and agro-industrial waste, for powers of 200kWe to 2MWe, with a strong impact on local economies, employment, local environment and climate change, through a transfer of manufacturing and operating know-how already operational in Cambodia.