BPC subsidising mining companies � CEO :: Mmegi Online

The Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) says it is losing money by selling power to mining companies, some of which are profitable, at the prevailing low tariffs. New chief executive officer, Stefan Schwarzfischer told BusinessWeek the Corporation is losing 25 thebe for every KiloWatt hour (KWh) it sells to mining companies, a situation that has exacerbated the power utility’s financial performance.

Latest BPC financial results for the year up to march 2015, show that the Corporation recorded an operating loss before tariff subsidy of P1.996 billion compared to P1.398 billion in the previous year. The mining sector consumes about 35% of the BPC total supply.

From the 3.9 GigaWatthour (GWh) the Corporation supplied in 2015, the mining sector consumed 1,194 GigaWattHour (GWh) or 1.194 billion KWh of power from BPC contributing P760 million in revenue to the power utility. “The tariff for mining is about 25 thebe below the production costs. “Because of the mismatch between the production costs and tariffs, government has been subsidising us. At BPC we can only work on being efficient.

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