08 Dec 2019

Government will continue to render the necessary support to Botswana Power Cooperation (BPC) and ensure that a conducive environment for the investors in the power sector is created.

Officiating at the 47^th Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) executive committee meeting in Gaborone recently, Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security, Mr Lefoko Moagi acknowledged the SADC Energy ministers for the great work that SAPP was doing in driving the electricity agenda and striving to keep the lights on in the region through regional integration.

“I am aware that nine out of 12 SADC countries are interconnected, and that it is critical to get the remaining three interconnected. 

SADC greatly supports initiatives to have the remaining countries namely; Angola, Malawi and Tanzania to be interconnected to the SAPP grid,” he said.

The significant progress, he said, was also being made by Tanzania and Zambia to interconnect with SAPP grid with some of the transmission lines already under construction, adding that the project would bring together two power pools in Africa being SAPP and Eastern African Power Pool (EAPP).

Minister Moagi urged experts in the field to address all the key challenges that might arise in terms of safe, efficient and reliable operation of the resultant large interconnected network.

He said the two power pools would have a significant benefit in terms of the power exchanges and it would be in line with the aims of the African Union.

He emphasised that SADC was looking forward to that day when all countries of SADC would be interconnected and all share the benefits of electricity trade and resilient power network.

Mr Moagi further noted that he wished the meeting would address the impact of drought on the supply situation of some countries that relied on hydropower to ensure that the power systems were climate resilient.

The meeting also took note of the progress being made in preparation and implementation of various cross-border and generation projects in the region, he said.

The ministry also learnt that the ministers responsible for Energy in SADC region plans to commission 17,700 MW between 2019 and 2022 and the corresponding investments in transmission would be needed to evacuate the power to where it was required, he said.

This, he said would no doubt underpin the SADC Industrialisation Agenda that had been graded upon as the main focus in the region, it would also help to uplift the lives of the SADC citizens as electricity was now a key future in society.

During the meeting, the SAPP member categories will be revised and this will allow private sector entities to become members of SAPP and contribute to electricity trading region, said Mr Moagi.

“These efforts will yield an increase in investments in both generation and transmission projects in the region. 

In addition, this will help SAPP to achieve a more efficient trading system through increased competition,” he said.

Minister Moagi encouraged those that were not participating in the market to explore the opportunity to trade via the SAPP electricity market as BPC had benefited from it.

For his part, the BPC chief executive officer, Mr Cross Kgosidiile said they had met as executive officers of SADC power utilities to discuss several areas that the SADC electricity sector was facing.

“We are also going to consider and discuss the decision and recommendations that came from the previous SADC Energy Ministers Meeting that was held in May in Windhoek, Namibia” said Mr Kgosidiile.

Mr Kgosidiile said SAPP continued to support the development of various transmission inter-connector projects.

He explained that electricity trading SAPP and the status of generation and transmission projects in the SADC region were going to be discussed, especially  how the non-operating members; Angola, Malawi and Tanzania were to be connected.

Mr Kgosidiile also reported that the Mozambique-Malawi inter-connector was under construction and the Zambia-Tanzania was at an advanced stage of implementation.

He also explained that the meeting would also prepare for the upcoming SADC Energy Ministers Meeting that would take place next year, where the SAPP executive committee would present the status of electricity sector and how it could take SAPP to the next level. Ends