Power to BPC

| Friday January 8, 2010 00:00

Reports from Zimbabwe indicate that the power utility, Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) and their Zimbabwean counterpart ZESA have signed a US$ 8 million power deal that will see Botswana getting at least 40 megawatts from Zimbabwe.

The money will be used to help revive the Bulawayo Thermal Power Station which when operating at optimal level will generate 90 megawatts. Part of the money will also be used to purchase coal for the generation of electricity.

The $8 million injection will be beneficial to both Zimbabwe and Botswana. Due to the economic meltdown and economic sanctions imposed on Zimbabwe by international donors and financial institutions a lot of infrastructure in Zimbabwe are run down and in a bad state of disrepair due to financial constraints. This power deal will help to rehabilitate the key infrastructure in Zimbabwe thus ensuring that Zimbabweans have power while helping neighbours such as Botswana with the much needed electricity to help avert the many power outages.

Media reports further indicate that BPC have been very active and in their pursuits they have managed to secure other deals in the Democratic Republic of Congo and Mozambique. A total of 90 megawatts will be accrued from The DRC and Mozambique with 50 from Mozambique and 40 from DRC respectively.

These deals have come at the right time in that South Africa's ESKOM has been faced with serious shortages which necessitated the reduction of Botswana's ration from 350 megawatts by 100 megawatts. These deals once in full operation should be enough to cover for the ESKOM shortfall.

Over the past few years business in Botswana has been severely hampered by the regular and unannounced power outages. A fast developing economy such as Botswana needs a regular power supply. As many of our development initiatives are dependent on the availability of electricity, it would have been disastrous for this nation to continue with such initiatives while power shortages remain a factor in our lives. We want to congratulate the Energy ministry and BPC who have worked so hard to ensure that they have these deals in place.

These will help restore business and indeed public confidence in our power authorities. It seems the officials at the ministry of Energy and BPC know what they should be doing.

Before the expanded Morupule and Mmamabula are commissioned we need other alternative sources and it is only well that BPC looked for diverse alternative sources in the region. 

                                                  Today's thought

'Gratitude is a quality similar to electricity: it must be produced and discharged and used
up in order to exist at all.'

                                            - William Faulkner quotes