The corporation’s general manager for generation, Edward Rugoyi told this week’s Botswana Resources Infrastructure Energy Forum that plans for the conversion were in progress.
“We are thinking of importing LNG to fuel the 90MW,” he said.
While he did not give details of the plans for conversion, Rugoyi’s mention of the BPC importing the gas comes nearly seven years after the corporation shortlisted four local energy developers for gas supply to the Orapa plant.
At the time, the Public Procurement and Asset Disposal Board revealed that Tlou Energy, Sekaname Pty Ltd, KS Energy and Ocean Ridge Pty Ltd were front-runners to provide gas to the Orapa plant as a trial for its eventual conversion.
However, in the years since then, the plant has continued to run on diesel consuming a reported 17,000 litres of diesel per hour at its two turbines, when run at full tilt. The Orapa plant was designed to be a power peaking plant run only when the baseload power stations at Morupule were unable to meet national demand.
However, the plant has occasionally been run at full capacity over prolonged periods over the years due to operational troubles at the 600MW Morupule B power station, adding a significant burden to the BPC’s finances.
Analysts believe the BPC’s latest push to convert Orapa is part of efforts to rein in its operating costs as diesel prices escalate rapidly due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine and other factors in the global crude oil market.
International oil prices have been escalating in recent months, surpassing the $100 per barrel level in February, for the first time since 2014. Crude oil prices averaged $105.92 per barrel in April 2022 and with the BPC also maintaining the 70MW Matshelagabedi diesel plant over and above Orapa as a backup to Morupule B, the potential costs to the Corporation have spiked.
Coal-fired Morupule B, meanwhile, remains the country’s cheapest source of power with unit costs at about 60 thebe per kilowatt-hour, while imports, which have come down from the high levels seen in previous years, are estimated at between P1.20 and P1.40 per kilowatt-hour.
Rugoyi said the country’s electricity supply was presently stable, with Morupule B producing 380MW and one of its 150MW units due to return to full operation between July and September. National demand was estimated just above 500MW earlier in May.
“For winter, we are forecasting peak demand of more than 630MW and we have a plan to manage that,” Rugoyi said.
