13 Nov 2017

The Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy security, Advocate Sadique Kebonang has appealed to contractors undertaking the construction of the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) North West Transmission Phase one Grid Connection project to do it within budget and scheduled time.

Speaking at the signing of agreement by three contractors undertaking the project on Friday, the minister said the grid was important as it passed through many projects that required power such as the Khoemacau Copper Mining, which needed to be connected to the grid.

He also appealed to the contractors to employ as many Batswana as possible to address the issue of unemployment in Botswana.

The contractors are Kalpaturu, the South African based Consolidate Power Project and the Larsen and Turbo Limited.

Advocate Kebonang said projects of such magnitude needed to be taken seriously as they contributed to the economic development of the country.

The overall cost of the project which amount to P2.4 billion, will be done in two phases of P1.2 billion each.

The first high voltage project will be undertaken from Morupule-Maun-Shakawe and Ghanzi whilst the second phase will run from Selebi-Phikwe to Kasane. All the projects are projected to be completed not later than 2020.

The chief executive of the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), Dr Stefan Schwarzfischer assured Batswana that the three contractors had skills and expertise in high voltage material and infrastructure.

He explained that the three companies had been evaluated according to the BPC and PPADB procurement standards and that BPC was satisfied that they would deliver on the expectations of the project given the wealth of skills, technical competence and tangible evidence of their previous works.

Phase one of the project has been divided into nine stages and each contractor will contract and commission three of the nine stages. The CEO explained that BPC took a conscious decision in order to balance capacity to ensure efficient implementation of the project. 

Mr Schwarzfischer said he was confident that the Phase One of the project would commence in January 2018 to December 2019 as expected.

Phase one will see the construction of 40000v backbone transmission line from Morupule B to Maun via Orapa, two 400kkV substations and 132kV line and substations connecting Maun to Shakawe and Ghanzi.

The CEO further explained that the Phase Two will be implemented from August 2018 and was targeted for conclusion by October 2020. 

He added that BPC was currently evaluating tenders and that the corporation had already received the Phase Two of the project and should conclude the process by January 2018, and as such another signing ceremony of this nature with bidders would be done successfully.

He said during the period, the corporation would be increasing its human resource capacity including training of staff over the next two years to cater for the operations and maintenance of the extended grid. 

He explained that this would be to ensure reliable power supply when the project got into full operation by the end of 2019.

The ceremony also saw the signing of Memorandum of Understanding with Khoemacau Copper Mining, to the effect that BPC will provide approximately 30 Megga Watts to the copper mine in future, creating an employment of 900 people. BOPA