09 Jun 2013

The Chinese company contracted to build the controversial Morupule B Power Station has the capacity to undertake a project of that magnitude.

Submitting before the Public Accounts Committee, Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) chief executive officer, Mr Jacob Raleru said the contractor, China National Electric Equipment Corporation (CNEEC) had previous outstanding records doing similar work in other countries.

He noted that initially, there were four bidders; two Chinese companies, a European contractor and an Indian contractor, but the Indian contractor withdrew while the European contractor also dropped out at a later stage.

Ultimately, he said, they had two Chinese contractors remaining and after a thorough assessment, BPC picked CNEEC.

Mr Raleru stated that there has never been a crisis at the Morupule B that caused a delay in the delivery of the power station. 

He explained that the BPC carried out a technical audit and assessment of the project whose results showed that the equipment that is said to be melting was of high quality.

He noted that currently, two units out of four are up and running and they expect the two remaining units to be running at the latest by July this year.

Delays at the plant, he said, were caused by other factors amongst them procurement issues, plus insufficient supply to meet the demand which resulted in BPC suspending some of the work for safety reasons. 

However, Mr Raleru agreed with the PAC that BPC was technically bankrupt, but denied that the Morupule B Power Station was the cause although it contributed since power stations are usually complex projects to undertake.

He pointed out that BPC started experiencing some financial problems as far back as 2006 and that the corporation had engaged experts to look at their operation model.

Mr Raleru explained that the design lifespan of the power station was 30 years but BPC would have to address some teething problems in the first five years after delivery of the project.

He further explained that after delivery of Morupule B Power Station and the refurbishment of the Morupule A power station, which is not operating, the country will be self-sufficient in power generation by 2017.

Mr Raleru said BPC had to shut down the Morupule A power station because it was very costly to run while at the same time importing electricity from neighbouring countries.

However, he pointed out that after delivery of the Morupule B Power Station and the refurbishment of the Morupule A power station, BPC will continue to import electricity from neighbouring countries.

He said Botswana experiences blackouts because one of the power stations in South Africa that supply the country had been shut down.

Meanwhile, Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources permanent secretary, Mr Boikobo Paya denied reports that advice was tendered to his Ministry by the then Chinese  Ambassador to Botswana to the effect that CNEEC was not a suitable company to do the work.

Mr Paya said those were simply allegations that never reached his office.  ENDS