Tlou buoyed by 100MW gas plant proposal
Brian Benza | Friday June 24, 2016 16:32
The company is focused on delivering power in Botswana and Southern Africa through the development of Coal Bed Methane (CBM) projects.
In a statement released on Tuesday, Tlou acting managing director, Gabaake Gabaake said as the most advanced CBM project in Botswana, Tlou Energy is well placed to become a major supplier of this form of power. “Given government’s proposal, our plan to initially develop a 10MW project is now even more tangible and the potential for being granted not only an offtake for our gas but to generate revenues by supplying much-needed power to the national grid provides even more encouragement that our project will be a success,” he said. In his address at the recent Botswana Resource Sector Conference in Gaborone, the Minister of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources, Kitso Mokaila said CBM has been included in the country’s plans to reduce power shortages, with the government committing to an initial 100MW of gas power to be brought into the market. Tlou says it has independently certified contingent gas resources of 3.3 trillion cubic feet (TCF) in place at its Botswana projects.
Government is set to bring before the November Parliament changes to the Minerals Act, which include guidelines for the development and commercialisation of the CBM industry.
Tlou is also eyeing a tender to supply gas to the Orapa 90MW power station.
The dual fuel power station is currently running on diesel and last year government floated a tender as part of its plans to convert the plant to CBM. This is expected to reduce the cost of producing electricity at the power station by up to 60%.
Apart from Tlou Energy, KES is the only other company to have made considerable progress in exploring for CBM in Botswana’s eastern coalfields. Government plans to add up to 820MW of power into the national grid from both coal and solar powered plants by 2020, Mokaila told delegates at the mining conference. Independent power producers were expected to develop two 300MW stations while refurbishment of a 120MW coal-fuelled power plant was expected to be complete by end of 2017, Mokaila added.
A tender for a 100MW solar power station was also expected to be out soon, with the plant due to be running by 2018.
Earlier this year, government awarded a tender for a 300MW power plant to a joint venture between South Korea’s Posco and Japan’s Marubeni. Plans are also underway to order a 300MW power plant from a joint venture between South Korea’s Daewoo and Kepco.
Mokaila said the government would put out a 100MW solar power tender in the next two months, aiming to have it in operation by 2018. Botswana’s current power demand stands at an average 600MW. Its sole power station, Morupule B, produces about half of that, with the remainder coming from imports and diesel generators. Since it was commissioned in 2012, the Chinese-built 600MW Morupule B Power Plant has not produced at full capacity due to boiler failures and tube leaks.