Watts in Kedikilwe's power trip?

KETO SEGWAI
Staff Writer | Friday February 8, 2008 00:00

 

Kedikilwe arrived yesterday afternoon from Cape Town where he held intense consultations with his South African counterparts.

Those consultations come amid fears that the South Africans could pull the plug on Botswana. Kedikilwe, who would not be drawn into discussing the contents of the meeting, says that he is yet to brief the President and cabinet before the public announcement.

The minister says he has been busy gathering the relevant facts before the public briefing. The Cape Town sojourn was part of the facts gathering exercise.

The acting chief executive of the Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), Jacob Raleru, would also not be drawn into discussing contingencies should the South African power utility, Eskom, were to terminate their electricity supply contract with BPC. 

Botswana imports 70 per cent of her electricity requirements from South Africa. Eskom can barely meet domestic demand and it is increasingly coming under considerable pressure to review its supply agreements and contracts with neighbouring countries' utilities. 

Raleru could only intimate that BPC is presently engaged in 'delicate and sensitive' negotiations relating to supply agreements.

BPC is known to have entered into some supply agreements with the Mozambican utility, Hydro-electrica de Caborra Bassa. But the details relating to the size of the supply and the duration of contract are still undisclosed. 

BPC is previously also known to have sought a supply agreement with the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO). It is not clear whether that proposal, which was to be effective from January 2008-2010, came to any fruition. What is clear however, is that ZESCO, of late, has been experiencing power shortages of its own, leading to the adoption of load-shedding measures.

In the mean time, the power crisis in Botswana has affected all facets of life. The major electricity consumers, the mining sector, have been hardest hit. For instance, the BCL general manager, Montwedi Mphathi told the Mmegi Selebi-Phikwe office that power deficiencies would hamper economic growth. He said it would be difficult for new investors to get power when existing businesses are struggling to get sufficient supplies.

As it is, in the recent past, Botswana has been experiencing unprecedented investments in the mining sector, particularly in the north-eastern part of the country. And more mineral prospecting and discoveries are constantly being announced throughout the country.

Maria Machailo-Ellis, the chief executive officer of the Botswana Confederation of Commerce, Industry and Manpower (BOCCIM) was emphatic that 'the problem is very big, both in terms of scale and value. It has affected all sectors. Basically everybody is affected'.

Machailo-Ellis decried the dearth of information from relevant authorities on the measures that might be afoot to bring the crisis under control.

'They are not giving us relevant information. We are just hoping that something is being done as we speak. It would have been better if we were being told what contingency measures are in place,' complained Ellis.

Lack of information has apparently led to prevalent perception that the relevant authorities are treating this crisis as 'business as usual'. Mphathi is concerned that the power crisis appears to be treated 'casually'.

The prevalent perception appears not to be misplaced given the history of the crisis. Eskom, and by extension its dependant regional utilities, were forewarned by the 1998 report of the impending supply problems forecast  for 2007. 

Indeed even the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP) projections identified the problem from 2007 to 2010. Even the BPC has long known that the electricity consumption would outstrip the production from the Morupule Power Station since it started operations in 1985/86 with its 132 MW output.

BPC carried out a feasibility study for Morupule's expansion only in October 2003-2004.  The final recommendation of that study was to commence right away with a 400 MW undertaking.  But the tenders for the US$600 million (P3.8 billion) expansion project were awarded on 14 December 2007.

The SAPP-instigated western corridor project, whose shareholding agreement was signed with much fanfare in September 2005 in Gaborone, appears to be behind schedule.

Ironically, the SADC Council of Ministers approved the project on 3 October 2003 as 'a priority energy project'.

The P35 billion Westcor project that was to tap hydropower from the Inga Falls in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC) was scheduled to start in 2007, and be completed by 2010.

Westcor is a joint venture project between five utilities corporations of Societe National d'Electricidade of the DRC, Empresa Nacional De Electrecidade (ENE) of Angola, NamPower of Namibia, BPC and Eskom. The project even had a telecommunications component.

It remains to be seen whether the power crisis that has engulfed the regional utilities would arouse them from their legendary slumber. 

What the crisis has evidently done however, is to show flash light into the darkness of ineptitude that is characteristic of the regional utilities' lack of strategic planning. Additional reporting by Gideon Nkala.