23 Jan 2018

Construction of the long awaited North West Transmission Grid Connection (NWTGC) power line officially started in Samochima village, in Okavango district on Monday.

The ground breaking of the P4.8 billion project, which will be implemented in two phases, was done by the Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy, Advocate Sadique Kebonang, while each phase will be valued at P2.8 billion.

The NWTGC phase I will see the construction of a 400 kv backbone transmission line from Morupule B to Maun via Orapa, two 400kv substations and 220kv / 132kv lines and substations connecting Toteng, Ghanzi, Shakawe and Gumare to the 400kv line.

Phase II will see the extension of the 400kv grid from Phokoje (Selebi-Phikwe) to Pandamatenga via Dukwi and a 220kv line to Kasane/Kazungula.

Speaking at the ground breaking ceremony, Advocate Kebonang said government was committed to ensure power connections across the country to those areas that currently did not have electricity.

He said the NWTGC project would open opportunity to reduce dependency on power imports from countries such as Namibia, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The North West region of the country specifically the Okavango district, in case of Phase I, is currently dependent on Namibia power supply requirements.The minister said the intention in the future was to see Botswana exporting power to neighbouring countries.

He noted that the project was timely given the recent discovery of some minerals in the Okavango area as the mining sector was one of the sectors that relied much in electricity for operation.

Giving the overview of the project, BPC chief executive officer, Dr Stefan Schwarzfischer said the NWTGC would create employment for 2 100 people each phase during the period of construction with about 81 per cent local citizens.

“We have projected about 5 000 to 8 000 permanent jobs created in various sectors of the economy once the project has been completed and business operations grown and established in the North West district,” said Dr Schwarzfischer.

Furthermore, Dr Schwarzfischer said the NWTGC would provide grid access to all sectors of the economy, such as mining, with Khoemacau already on site in North West, tourism, commercial, domestic and further improve the quality of electricity and reliability of supply in the country. ENDS