20 Jun 2021

Electricity is one of the enablers that can help the country unlock economic opportunities as well as assist government achieve Reset21 agenda priorities, particularly value chain development.

This was said by Minister of Mineral Resources, Green Technology and Energy Security Mr Lefoko Moagi at the handover ceremony of the 132/33/11 kv Ramotswa substation recently.

Mr Moagi said the project, constructed at a cost of over P172 million, was in line with government’s commitment to diversifying the economy and creating sustainable jobs for citizens, especially the youth.

“It is also worth mentioning that the construction of this substation provided employment to Batswana over a 15-month period through subcontracting citizen owned companies and direct employment of citizens,” he said.

He urged the Ramotswa community to take advantage of the expected reliable power supply and make use of government programmes and venture into the agribusiness and ecotourism spheres, among others.

Giving a brief overview, BPC chief executive officer, Mr David Kgoboko said the objective of the multimillion Pula project was to address reliability of supply challenges due to network constraints from previous supply arrangements.

He said it was also meant to provide adequate capacity to meet increasing demand. “Ramotswa village was fed by a 33kV line from Mogoditshane Sub 500, which has run out of capacity to connect step loads.

This has resulted in the suppressed demand of approximately 12MVA due to failure to meet applications for additional power from large power users (LPUs) and hence the decision to reinforce the supply to Ramotswa village, “ he said.

He said the project commenced in January 2015 and was completed in April 2021, as opposed to its scheduled completion date of April 2020, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

He said other challenges encountered during construction included heavy rains, which were experienced in the months of November and December, 2019, unscheduled workers’ holidays during October 2019 (national voting) and 2019 Christmas shutdown.

Mr Kgoboko said the works were further affected by the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown in April 2020, which restricted the movement of equipment and expatriates required for commissioning.

He noted that as part of the Citizen Economic Empowerment drive, the project was supported by local subcontractors Landmark Projects (Pty) Ltd and Micrak Investments (Pty) Ltd, adding that they also paid about P9 million for procurement of local material. ENDS