Morupule B sputters back to life

Mbongeni Mguni | Friday February 14, 2014 15:08

On Wednesday, Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) spokesperson, Oarabile Setlhabi, told BusinessWeek that Unit 1 had been fired up in line with the amended schedule made public last week. He said the 150-megawatt (MW) unit would take 14 hours to begin generation electricity.

“We are hoping that Unit 1 will generate the gross 150 MW if all things go accordingly,” he said.

“We are planning to have Unit 4 back on line by Sunday.” While Morupule B has been plagued with technical troubles throughout its development and operation, last week was the first time all four units had been offline simultaneously, resulting in total plant shutdown. The shutdown forced the BPC to rely heavily on the costly 160MW output from two emergency diesel plants at Orapa and Matshelagabedi, as well as supplies from Eskom in South Africa and the region. The failure of Units 1 and 4 also came after the January transfer of the Operations and Maintenance (O & M) contract from the Chinese contractor who built Morupule B to a German firm, STEAG Energy Services.

The BPC had warned that the transfer carried a danger of disruption to normal supplies as “the transition to STEAG might take time to stabilise”.

Earlier in the week, sources close to the power station told BusinessWeek that the latest troubles at Morupule B were due to transitional challenges faced by the new O & M service provider. “The air duct burner was burnt down due to overheating and overtime running of the furnace, which was strictly defined in the O&M manual and manufacture document,” an insider said. “Furthermore, all the cables above the burner were totally burned. Since the changeover of O & M contractor, Unit 4 has tripped 10 times and there has been a lot of over-pressure and overheating which could adversely impact the plant’s lifespan.”

While Setlhabi could not comment on the new O & M contract, the BPC had previously stressed that it was “working extremely hard” to ensure a seamless transition and avoid supply disruptions. The latest problems at Morupule B have caused intermittent power cuts across the country, although households have reported that these are generally of a shorter duration than previous loadshedding exercises. Setlhabi said the BPC was supplementing its supply with the emergency diesel power, Eskom and regional imports. Last week, the South African utility firm confirmed that it was supplying approximately 300MW to the BPC, but was unable to agree to any new arrangement.

“Eskom and BPC are in frequent contact regarding our mutual supply challenges in order to support each other to the extent possible, but the supply situation does not allow for any new agreements to be concluded at this stage,” an Eskom spokesperson said in a written response.

The BPC has been allocated P2.05 billion in the 2014/15 budget, which includes P1.5 billion for operational and maintenance costs and another P140 million for emergency power supply.