Africa-Press – Namibia. SOUTH Africa’s electricity troubles will not affect Namibia, and Zambia is already positioned to come to the country’s rescue should load-shedding impact it.
This was said by NamPower’s managing director, Simson Haulofu, this week.
He is confident that the back-up plan, which involves importing more electricity from Zambia, will accommodate the country’s power needs.
Haulofu’s counterpart in South Africa, André de Ruyter, yesterday resigned as power issues continue to trouble the country.
Zambia has been Namibia’s main source of electricity imports in the last five months, accounting for over 50% of all imports.
Namibia currently imports 100MW electricity from South Africa’s energy giant Eskom, with a further non-firm arrangement for 300MW, which is not available during any load-shedding or emergency event in South Africa.
Eskom implements load-shedding in South Africa as a last resort in view of the shortage of generation capacity and the need to attend to breakdowns in that country.
NamPower earlier this year renegotiated and extended its electricity supply agreement with Eskom for a further three years.
Haulofu said NamPower is a member of the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) and supplements its local generation with supply from the SAPP market to always meet demand.
“When we are affected by load-shedding, the required shortfall is supplied through increasing supply from existing local dispatchable plants and sourcing supply from the SAPP market,” he said.
The South African state power utility is currently implementing stage 5 load-shedding, with large areas of the country experiencing power cuts.
Talks are that this would soon escalate to stage 6, which could mean up to 12 hours without power.
During load-shedding, Namibia’s power supply is curtailed – as are all other Eskom customers – depending on the stage level.
Haulofu said NamPower has increased its supply option from Zambia, who has access to additional excess energy due to the completion of one of its mega projects related to the Kafue Gorge Hydroelectric Power Station.
Namibia produces about 40% of its energy requirements, and about 60% is imported from neighbouring countries through the SAPP.
Approximately 30% of the country’s electricity is being supplied by South Africa.
“NamPower has several generation projects at different stages of development aimed at addressing the reliance on energy imports,” Haulofu said.
He said NamPower has a capacity expansion programme currently in its execution phase to realise 220MW of the local generation requirement.
One such project is the 20MW solar plant – the Omburu Power Plant – which was energised earlier this year and is supplying to the grid.
In addition to the Van Eck Power Station, there is also a 22,5MW diesel plant (the Anixas Power Plant at Walvis Bay), which is used as a standby plant.
Haulofu says the SAPP market further allows members to trade in short-term markets/agreements that are a month, week or day long.
“These trading arrangements give NamPower and all other members the option to meet their energy requirements on short notice,” he said.
In Uganda, where Eskom’s subsidiary operates, talks are that the Presidency has indicated it will not extend its contract as plans are in place to nationalise the electricity sector, with its Presidency citing affordability issues.
According to the Namibia Statistics Agency’s sectoral report, a total of 278 245MWh of electricity was imported in October 2022, mostly sourced from Zesco in Zambia, accounting for 47,8% of the country’s power, followed by Eskom Aggeneis in South Africa (18,6%), Day Ahead Market-SAPP (15,8%), and ZPC Zimbabwe (13,3%).
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