Gov’t steps up work on power transmission
Mbongeni Mguni | Monday November 2, 2026 06:00
Minerals and Energy minister, Bogolo Kenewendo, told BusinessWeek that apart from the existing output at Morupule A and B power stations, the utility-scale Mmadinare and Jwaneng renewable energy plants, 12 grid-tied solar plants and others, more generation was scheduled to come online next year.
This includes 300 megawatts from Jindal Africa’s coal-fired project in Mmamabula and output from the 500MW solar and battery energy storage system being developed by Oman’s Naqaa Sustainable Energy LLC. There are plans to also engage more Independent Power Producers (IPPs) for development of 2x200MW and 2x200MW solar PV power plants in Letlhakane and Isang.
Together with other private sector projects under development, the efforts are expected to lead to supply significantly exceeding domestic demand from 2027 and beyond.
“We are quite aggressively looking into the market in the region, mines in Zambia and Zimbabwe and so forth, to position ourselves to export,” Kenewendo told BusinessWeek in a wide-ranging interview on Tuesday. “The BPC has a commitment to buy, because when it's produced, the agreement is that the BPC has to buy. “Therefore, Botswana Power Corporation must have a demand centre to send that electricity, whether it's to the households, to the industry here, or to export. “Evacuation will be quite critical.”
The BPC is, by law, the single buyer of electricity in the country, capable of entering into Power Purchase Agreements with generators of power.
With the Botswana Economic Transformation Programme targeting a massive increase in generation, more focus is shifting towards rehabilitating local transmission while also finalising interconnectors into the region.
“It's not only about generation, it's about the infrastructure that allows us to evacuate this power,” the minister said. “Morupule B on a good day is producing 530 megawatts, but there are still parts of the country that get power disruptions. “This is because the infrastructure is old. It's old; the transmission lines are old, the distribution lines are old. “We also haven't had enough capacity to pull the grid to certain areas, especially village extensions. “The next challenge for us is stabilising the grid, extending the grid and positioning our infrastructure with those 400kV lines that take us to the border, interconnectors that connect us to Zambia, to Zimbabwe and allow us to trade with South Africa and Namibia and so forth.”
BusinessWeek is informed that the amendments to the Botswana Energy Regulatory Authority Act are due in Parliament next month, which will, amongst others, recognise independent transmission providers and introduce power trading.
Government is also accelerating an Off-Grid Solar solution programme which seeks to electrify villages and settlements located too far from the grid where provision of electrification through the grid is considered not financially and economically viable.
Kenewendo said implementation started with a pilot of installation of four solar PV mini-grids together with isolated electrical reticulation at six villages to the tune of P98 million funded through the National Electrification Fund.
“The objective of this programme is to electrify some and most of the remaining parts of the country through use of isolated solar PV mini-grids and solar home systems, and it has targeted more than 240,000 households,” she said. “Rural electrification currently stands at more than 83% through conventional grid power.”