BPC Shines a Light on its Power Struggles

The power system blackouts that occurred at midnight at the beginning of this week at the Chinese-built Morupule B Power Station magnified just how troubles at the multibillion pula coal-fired power plant are far from over. By midweek, principals at Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) were clueless as to what had happened at the power plant which plunged the whole country into darkness and were still in the process of trouble-shooting the problem. [ihc-hide-content ihc_mb_type="show" ihc_mb_who="1,2,3,4" ihc_mb_template="1" ] At a short notice press conference in Gaborone, Chief Executive Officer David Kgoboko told journalists that prior to the latest incident, adequate generation was available at both Morupule A and B power plants, generating about 550 megawatts (MW) against a national demand of 390MW and enabling exports of 60MW to the Southern African Power Pool (SAPP). Groping in the dark At the time of the press briefing, BPC was still groping in the dark for the cause of the grid disturbance and could not quantify the losses sustained. Kgoboko admitted as much. “Preliminary information shows that there was a disturbance on the Phokoje–Matimba 400 Kv line which could have been caused by a fault line,” he said. “We have also observed that there were power swings on the same line which could have emanated from our neighbouring grid systems or from outside our own grid. This is yet to be confirmed through the investigations.” At the time of the press conference, Kgoboko said two units at Morupule A had been restored. Planned outage As for Morupule B, he noted, Unit 4 was restored to full service and operating at its full load of 150MW while Unit 3 was in the process of being restored to full capacity. Unit 1 of the same plant had suffered a minor defect from the abrupt grid disturbance. Kgoboko said Unit 2 was on a planned outage with major overhauls underway and is expected to be back in service by July. According the CEO of the power generation parastatal, the national electricity demand currently ranges between 380MW and 600MW at peak and he anticipated a supply deficit of 120MW, hence implementation of rotational load shedding experienced since the beginning of the week. He revealed that Morupule B units will undergo remedied works for the next three years during which power supply constraints are expected to continue. According to Kgoboko’s latest disclosures, the power plant will not operate at full capacity until 2026, the deadline having been moved from June 2023 to 2024 before. COVID-19 BPC blames the outbreak of COVID-19 for causing delays in remedying the power plant whose troubles date back to 2012 when it was commissioned. With defects subsequently identified, Morupule B has been undergoing remedial works since 2019. Kgoboko disclosed that a 50MW Solar PV power plant that is to be built in Selibe-Phikwe and a 100MW solar power plant that will “soon” go to tender are among projects that will ensure reliable and efficient power supply in the long term. “We have a 300MW coal-fired IPP project that is expected to reach commercial date of completion by 2027,” he said. He acknowledged that while Morupule B was specifically built to ensure sufficient domestic power supply, its recurrent failure constantly results in Botswana’s prolonged reliance on South Africa’s Eskom and SAPP to augment the deficit. Meanwhile, figures from Statistics Botswana indicate that during the fourth quarter of 2022, the physical volume of imported electricity decreased by 49.2 percent (267,160 Megawatt-Hour (MWH) from 543,417 MWH during the fourth quarter of 2021 to 276,257 MWH during the quarter under review. Compared to the third quarter of the same year, imported electricity during the fourth quarter of 2022 shows a decrease of 3.5 percent (9,914 MWH), from 286,171 MWH during the third quarter of 2022 to 276,257 MWH during the current quarter. Mozambique Eskom was the main source of imported electricity at 44.4 percent of total electricity imports followed by the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation Limited (ZESCO) which accounted for 20.9 percent. The remaining 15.6, 11.0, 8.0 and 0.2 percent were sourced from Electricidade de Mozambique (EDM), SAPP, cross-border electricity markets and Nampower (Namibian utility). Cross-border electricity refers to an arrangement whereby towns and villages along the border are supplied with electricity from neighbouring countries such as Namibia and Zambia. At the press conference this week, BPC Technical Services Manager, Tebogo Thakadu, revealed that prior to this year, BPC’s contract with Eskom was firm, meaning that Eskom supplied BPC with power as and when necessary. However, he added, since April this year the contract has been non-firm and BPC has not been getting any power from Eskom because South Africa is also contending with its own power challenges. [/ihc-hide-content]

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BPC Shines a Light on its Power Struggles

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