WINDHOEK – Namibia’s national power utility NamPower yesterday said it has enough altenatives up its sleeves for energy supply, arraying any fears that the current crisis engulfing its South African counterpart Eskom would spill over across the Orange River.
Eskom caused panic and consternation in recent days after almost a week of load shedding that reached an unprecedented stage four.
Without financial resources to generate power, to the extent that it is now in the middle of negotiations to retrench many of its workers, Eskom yesterday said it was now waiting to see what finance minister Tito Mboweni have for them, in his budget speech reserved for tomorrow. But while supply trouble is brewing in neighbouring South Africa, from where NamPower imports 200MW of electricity per hour, the Namibian utility was quick to affirm yesterday that it has sufficient alternatives under its belly.
“Yes, NamPower still imports power from Eskom,” said Managing Director Simson Kahenge Haulofu to New Era upon inquiry.
“The load shedding in South Africa will not affect Namibia, as Namibia does not solely depend on Eskom for energy,” he added.
Namibia is banking her optimistm on being an active trader in the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) electricity market and the fact that apart from the power purchase agreement with Eskom, the country also has similar agreements with Zimbabwe Power Corporation (ZPC) and Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (Zesco).
Domestically, Haulofu said the Ruacana hydro power plant and the Anixas diesel plants are currently dispatched optimally to avert possible load-shedding.
“In addition, Namibia enjoys an increase in locally generated-energy, attributed to the national REFIT projects and other independent power producer projects that have reached completion and are actively feeding into the national grid. To date, the renewable energy plants are contributing about 155MW into the system.”
NamPower is currently being supplied from Ruacana (250MW), Anixas (22MW), Zesco (50MW), ZPC (80MW), and renewable energy plants (117MW).
“In the event the afore-mentioned sources do not meet the Namibia electricity demand,” said Haulofu, “NamPower then imports from SAPP trading market and Eskom.”
“NamPower imports 200MW from Eskom as per the PPA (Power Purchanging Agreement) of five years signed between the two parties, ending in March 2022. The PPA is a confidential document and hence the price and other provisions are not for public consumption.”