Zambian state power producer surpassed the South African power producer as the largest supplier of electricity to Botswana despite its decimated power generation capacity.
Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (ZESCO), known to generate power from the massive hydro-powered Kariba Dam, is grappling with the worst electricity blackouts in living memory.
However, ZESCO is Botswana’s major power supplier, according to the latest figures from Statistics Botswana.
The crisis is so severe that Zambian cities and towns across the country are sometimes without electricity for three consecutive days, with people counting themselves lucky if the lights come on for an hour or two.
Meanwhile, in Botswana, ZESCO outperformed South African power producer, Eskom as the main exporter to Botswana. During the first quarter of 2024, ZESCO accounted for 40.5 percent of Botswana Power Corporation’s (BPC) power needs.
Eskom accounted for 38.5 percent, while the remaining supply was sourced from the Electricidade de Mozambique (EDM), Namibia Power Corporation (Nampower), Cross-border electricity markets and the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP).
According to Statistics Botswana, cross-border electricity markets involve supplying towns and villages along the border with electricity from neighboring countries, such as Namibia and Zambia.
ZESCO also in the first quarter accounted for a significant amount of imported electricity at 48.8 percent of total electricity imports.
Namibia Power Corporation (Nampower) accounted for 17.7 percent, while the remaining 16.5, 12.0 and 5.0 percent were sourced from Electricidade de Mozambique (EDM), Eskom and Cross-border electricity markets respectively.
Moreover, ZESCO also dominated electricity imports during the third quarter of 2023 as the main source of imported electricity at 43.1 percent of total electricity imports.
In the past, Eskom had been the major supplier of Botswana’s foreign electricity supply and that has since come down as Eskom currently faces supply challenges, a situation that plunged South Africa into load-shedding.
As Eskom scaled down its import supply to Botswana and other markets across the SADC region, BPC was forced to look up for another power supply markets with Zambia and Mozambique becoming key suppliers.
Furthermore, while the country still imports electricity to meet up local demand level, a significant stride is that the value of imported electricity is decreasing.
For instance, Statistics Botswana noted that during the quarter under review the physical volume of imported electricity decreased by 17.8 percent (82,839 MWh), from 464,603 MWh during the second quarter of 2023 to 381,764 MWh.
The amount of imported electricity decreased by 6.9 percent (28,255 MWh) during the second quarter of 2024 compared to the previous quarter, from 410,020 MWh to 381,764 MWh.
This against the backdrop of an improved local electricity generation as the quarter-on-quarter perspective shows that local electricity generation increased by 1.0 percent (8,256 MWH), from 791,267 MWh during the first quarter of 2024 to 799,523 MWh during the period under review.
