BPC expects demand to peak at 680MW

Boitshepo Majube | Friday January 10, 2014 17:30

On Wednesday, Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) officials said electricity demand in 2013 had averaged 578 MW, but was expected to grow this year due to economic activity and new connections to the national grid.

The projected higher demand this year is set against the debilitated Morupule B, which is presently only capable of producing up to half its 600MW nameplate capacity, a contractual 100MW from Eskom, with another 200MW on an auction basis as well as 160MW in emergency diesel power.

The emergency power component includes 90MW from Orapa owned by Debswana and 70MW supplied by an American energy firm, APR Energy, from a field of diesel power modules in Matshelagabedi in the northeast.

The firm recently sealed a 12-month extension of its supply contract with the BPC to December 31, 2014.

BPC spokesperson, Oarabile Setlhabi told BusinessWeek that the 70MW extension was designed to support baseload generation at Morupule B in order to reduce instances of supply failure and load shedding.

“The contract’s extension does not mean we have no confidence in fully operating Morupule B,” Setlhabi said.

“We do not want a situation where we let the contract go and if anything happens since Morupule B is still new, we don’t have back up.

“Matshelagabedi is an emergency power station and we need to have it in place to support generation,” he said.

BPC’s initial contract with APR ran from January 2009 to December 2012, but was extended by another 12 months in 2013 as a result of the incompletion and subsequent failures at Morupule B.

While both parties have kept details of their contracts private, it is understood the BPC pays a charge for actual power received, and another for having the power available, as part of the tariff agreed with APR.

Private sector sources have previously said the corporation was running the two emergency plants throughout their scheduled shifts due to lack of domestic generation and shaky imports. 

Government allocated P300 million for the BPC’s emergency power in the 2013/14 budget and while the two emergency power stations took the lion’s share of an P800 million allocation in the 2012/13 budget also meant to cater for Morupule B.

Available planning modules from BPC suggest that the Matshelagabedi contract was extended due largely to the unavailability of Morupule A.

While the ageing power station was mothballed in August 2012, the BPC had planned to at least have half of its 120MW gross capacity on-stream this year, according to the planning modules.

Meanwhile, BPC has said the potential supply interruptions it had warned the public about on Monday have been reduced to a great extent as both working units at Morupule B have now stabilised and are generating electricity at almost full capacity. 

According to Setlhabi, the interruptions arose from rains experienced in the north, which have affected the condition of coal supplied to Morupule B.