09 Mar 2023

Liberalising power supply for all villages that depend on cross border power supplies will relieve them from experiencing frequent power outages, Minister of Minerals and Energy, Mr Lefoko Moagi has said.

Presenting the ministry’s budget estimates for the 2023/2024 financial year in Parliament on March 8, Mr Moagi said liberalising power supply would also ensure equitable supply and distribution of power to all villages connected to the local power grid.

“In our quest to attain security of electricity supply and self-sufficiency in line with our National Vision to become a net exporter of power, government has made significant progress in implanting the Integrated Resource Plan (IRP),” he said.

As such, he highlighted the need to fast track implementation of the IRP in order to achieve reasonable power generation security as well as ensure power export in the medium to long-term, saying that would improve and reduce the cost of the power build and supply programme.

“To this end, development of a new 300 Mega Watts (300MW) coal fired power generation plant is at negotiation stage with the preferred bidder while procurement 200MW concentrated solar thermal power station is at tender stage,” the minister said.

He added that plans to facilitate implementation of a 50MW wind power for electricity generation were also at an advanced stage, with the aim to increase contribution of renewable energy technologies to total local power generation capacity for the country. Additionally, Minister Moagi indicated that there had been substantial uptake of the renewable energy programme as witnessed by the continued implementation of 2x50MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plants in Selebi-Phikwe and Jwaneng as well as development of the 12 solar PV grid tied electricity generation mini plants.

That, he said was important because the country had already committed to addressing climate change issues by reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 15 per cent in 2036.

Furthermore, Mr Moagi noted that the ministry continued to develop relevant regulations and regulatory instruments to promote energy security and sector transformation.

He said the ministry was in process of developing and implementing a power sector reforms strategy, which involved unbundling of power generation and allowing Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) to retain transmission and distribution operations.

“The legislation and regulatory framework will also be strengthened to facilitate selected electricity market structure to allow for unbundling of BPC,” he added.

With regard to the rural village electrification programme, Mr Moagi acknowledged that the programme continued to be implemented and funded from the domestic development budget, save for the P50 million that was secured from the national electrification fund for electrification of 40 villages. The programme, he said remained critical in improving the quality of lives of Batswana.

To date, he said electrification of gazetted villages stood at 79.1 per cent with 447 out of 565 gazetted villages electrified. ENDS