29 Mar 2015

Government has embarked on an ambitious programme to ensure security of power supply in the country, says the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources.


Addressing Kgatleng District councillors in Mochudi on March 26, Minister Kitso Mokaila said the country’s peak demand stood at 610 MW and it was met through local supply and imports, mainly from South Africa.

He said the Morupule B Power Station had frequent failures that resulted in load shedding at certain times.
 Minister Mokaila, however, said measures had been put in place to determine the root cause of the problems.


He added that his ministry had plans to refurbish Morupule A Power Station which was currently out of service and under care and maintenance. “Efforts are underway to ensure that the plant is refurbished and up and running by 2016/17,” said Mr Mokaila.

He said they also plan to develop  some units through independent power producers, and that the procurement process was ongoing with the target to have the plant operational by 2018
. He added that another coal fired station through independent power producers was also at the procurement stage and expected to produce power by 2020.


Mr Mokaila also noted that Botswana Power Corporation was running emergency diesel power plants at Matshelagabedi and Orapa respectively. 
 “The ministry, together with Botswana Power Corporation continues to encourage electricity users to implore energy efficiency and conservation measures when using electricity to avoid load shedding,” the minister said.

On the issue of water, Minister Mokaila said shortage of rainfall has led to the drying up of Gaborone Dam and shortage of water in the greater Gaborone area. 
He noted that the area uses 500 million litres of water per day which has led to water rationing. 


The minister said they were looking into other water resources to augment water shortage in the greater Gaborone area. 
Mr Mokaila said they were also aware of the problem of water distribution due to pressure and rusted pipes in some areas.

He said his ministry has all water distribution maps which showed all their pipelines. The minister said 32 boreholes at Masama fields provide 33 million litres of water.
 He further said his ministry planned to ensure that water continued to be provided to Batswana.


Responding to the address, the councillor for Boseja North, Mr Gomolemo Gouwe asked the minister whether the abundant solar energy in Botswana could be turned into electricity.

Mr Mokaila said the cost of solar power technology was expensive giving an example of the Phakalane solar power plant.
 ENDS