22 Oct 2015

Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources has said that Matshelagabedi power plant is a backup plant meant to feed into the national grid at the time that there is shortage of power.

This he said in an interview during his tour of the plant on Wednesday. Mr Kitso Mokaila explained that the country has been experiencing shortage of power particularly during the winter season.

And as the ministry they have been working round the clock to come up with means of addressing the situation so that there could be stability hence backup plants such as Matshelagabedi .

Mr Mokaila further explained that though the power cuts situations have since improved, they were  however working hard to be prepared for the next season of winter to have emergency plants. He said although it is summer and demand for power is at its minimal, Morupule B is fully operational and supply is not surpassed by demand.

Meanwhile, the plant engineer from Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) Mr Kenneth Syanjibu said the plant has two divisions being the 70 megawatts side and the additional one being 35 megawatts side which is managed by an American company APR Energy but supervised by BPC. It produces a total of 105 megawatts which is served into the national grid.

He explained that since it is a backup, it is only switched on, on the call from the national control centre which monitors the country power usage  round the clock. 

And he said when they were  running a full load of 70 megawatts, per hour they use 21 000 litres of diesel . Furthermore, Mr Syanjibu highlighted that the expansion was as a result of the government’s advice .

The expansion side was commissioned in September this year.  ENDS