The Morupule Misinformation

Minister Mokaila and his gurus of power generation at the Ministry of Minerals, Energy and Water Resources (MMEWR) and the power utility Botswana Power Corporation (BPC) have a magic solution to the power problem in the country. The solution lies no more than 5 kilometres from the centre of Palapye on the road to Serowe, to the right. It is not on the Morupule B Power Station that Mokaila wants the nation to believe. After all, it is an open secret that the P15bn project is a good-for-nothing, centre of substandard workmanship so faulty it could blow up anytime. It is on something else, further up the road, the Morupule A Power Station. The 33 year old piece of technology used to be a sight to behold at its height, but no more. Walking past the deserted power station with its tubes, rusty cabling, dust clinging to its entrails, it is difficult to imagine power generation. It is a sight right out of a post-Apocalyptic movie. Energy experts say Morupule A is not just further from power generation than the Minister presented, but it would take even more financial outlay, and indeed a longer period, to bring it back to life. No contract has been awarded yet because contractors feel Morupule A is a complete mishmash and will need over P3 billion for re-construction while government only budgeted P100 million. The Morupule A Power Station unlike its more modern offspring, was made from solid technology, and was designed and delivered to the highest standard. However it is the lack of proper care that ran the power station down. In the last three years since the headache that is Morupule B took the limelight, refurbishment and overall care of the power station has been sluggish say insiders. There are some who however advised the Ministry that Morupule A would still be needed even if Morupule B was delivered in perfect condition. Well grounded sources have revealed that power shortage in Botswana was predicted as early as 2008. A certain German company which was contracted by Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), invited government into a meeting in 2008, and advised the then Minister of Minerals Energy and Water Resources, Ponatshego Kedikilwe, that there was need to refurbish and maintain Morupule A, which had been neglected and facing a complete black-out. The company even advised the ministry to construct additional two units, with an output of 40 Mega Watts each, which would see Morupule B running on six units with the expanded units. When Morupule A was constructed in 1984, the initially drawn plan had six units. Only four were constructed, it was planned that the plant would be extended to six units and be fully maintained to operate for a period of 45 years. However, around 30 years later, Morupule A is completely dead because MMEWR and BPC gave the power insufficient care, insiders say. At the time when government was advised to refurbish Morupule A, with a plan to build unit 5 and 6, quotations from reputable German contractors in 2008 averaged EUROS 200 million (Around P2.1 billion), which government said at the time that it was too expensive, according to sources. The same advice was given to the ministry even at the time when government decided to construct Morupule B, saying that BPC would fall back on Morupule A, should Morupule B undergo technical problems and need maintenance. The sources say the advice was that government would have a peace of mind switching off Morupule B, knowing that an alternative power source will supply. Instead, government is said to have planned the construction of the 90 MW diesel powered plant at Debswana Mine in Orapa, where P710 million was spent. The plant was constructed as an emergency kick-in plant. Government’s efforts at the time were focused at the construction of Morupule B, insisting that Morupule A would be expensive to refurbish and therefore decided to place it on an indefinite care and maintenance. However, a German financial institution, Kreditanstalt Fur Wiederaufbau (KFW) wrote to Botswana Power Corporation CEO Jacob Raleru in January 1st 2010, regarding financing of a possible Morupule A expansion. The letter fully states that the KFW bank would fully support Thyssen Krupp Xervon Energy (Thyssen Krupp), a German Company which had quoted EURO 200 million (P2.1 billion approximately) for the expansion of Morupule B. Thyssen Krupp is a reputable government owned German conglomerate in industrial solutions. It is the same company that initially designed and drew technical plans for the construction of Morupule B, a technology that was sold to the Chinese company CNEEC, only for it to fail implementation of the technology. The P2.1 billion loan from Thyssen Krupp came with a guarantee of a fully operational plant and a 12 year repayment period. This is an offer which government rejected. Three years later, Morupule B, which government pinned all her hopes on is dysfunctional, despite its initially planned commission date of 2012. The Orapa diesel plant was designed to operate 6 hours each day, but since the load shedding troubles, the plant operates 10 hours each day. The diesel powered plant consumes 17 000 liters of diesel per an hour, which means annually government spends aroundP1billion just to run the plant. It is now that Morupule B has failed government is trying to move faster to get Morupule A up and running, and even expand its capacity. Minister of Finance and Development Planning, Kenneth Mathambo, announced this year that P100 million was set aside for the refurbishment of Morupule A. The amount is far from funding even 10 percent of the refurbishment according to engineers. Investigations reveal that after government floated the Morupule A refurbishment tender, companies with the cheapest bids averaged P3.5 billion, while Mokaila’s Ministry has a paltry P100 million budget. Should government had taken heed of the advice from the German companies since 2008, it appears government could have saved just over P1.5 billion, because the damage on the Morupule A plant was then average while inflationary pressures were also minimal. Mokaila seems to realise now that to refurbish and expand Morupule A, government will have to pay triple the amount she would have paid back then, if only they could have taken advice seriously. This Wednesday, Mokaila said that the delays in refurbishing Morupule A are that the bidders are too expensive. “We floated the first tender, bidders wanted triple the amount we had in mind,” he said, adding that the amount reduced after they re-tendered. The Business Weekly & Review can reveal that two bidders submitted to the initial tender, one Korean company at Euros 340m, and a German one at Euros 370m. “We are going to float another tender and see what bidders will quote which is not too expensive” he said. In short, over time, as time neglected the refurbishment of Morupule A, both cost and period needed to renew the power station have gone overboard. Mokaila said that by next year May, Morupule A should be able to feed into the national grid 90 MW. This contradicts what sources at the plant say. They say that Morupule A needs to be totally dismantled and major parts of the plants like boilers would have to be redesigned and re-erected, which may take 2 – 3 years. Mokaila says the idea is to also expand Morupule A output to 150 MW, from the initial 80 MW. A holistic approach to the development of energy sources, both the refurbishment of Morupule A and the development of Morupule B would have ensured that Government is able to balance out the demands between two main working power stations. One would handle the load while the other got refurbished. Government finds itself in a catch 22 situation, too broke to afford a real refurbishment of Morupule A, too pressed for energy to allow a complete shut-down and re-engineering of Morupule A. It is the same situation this year as the last, and the words from Mokaila and his experts have not changed.

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The Morupule Misinformation

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