- Engages Zismo Engineering for construction of transmission line
- Line will connect the Lesedi project to BPC’s grid
Tlou Energy, a Botswana Stock Exchange (BSE) listed company, with a focus on delivering power solutions to Botswana and Southern Africa, this week announced that the contract for construction of a transmission line to connect its 100 percent owned Lesedi Power Project to Botswana’s electricity grid has been signed.
This comes on the back of the company concluding a 10 megawatt Power Purchase Agreement (PPA) with Botswana Power Corporation (BPC), which is the first of its kind in Botswana. Tlou Energy secured funds to start the development of the 10MW Lesedi Power Project from its long-term supporter and largest shareholder, Botswana Public Officers Pension Fund (BPOPF).
The Lesedi Power Project is located approximately 100km from the existing electricity grid in Botswana. According to Tlou Energy, the first stage of development will be erection of wooden poles fitted with an overhead 66 kilovolt (kV) transmission line capable of supplying up to 25MW of power into the grid. The line will commence at Lesedi and run across predominantly flat, arid terrain with the final five kilometres traversing through the outskirts of Serowe where the line will join the existing grid.
Tlou says Zismo Engineering (Pty) Ltd has been engaged to construct the transmission line. Based in Botswana, Zismo is an experienced electrical engineering, contracting, automation and refurbishment company. It is expected to mobilise plant and equipment onsite in the coming weeks. According to Tlou Energy – which is BSE-listed and focuses on delivering power solutions to Botswana and southern Africa – the project is expected to take approximately 15 months to complete.
In addition to the overhead lines, substations will be installed at Lesedi and Serowe. The Lesedi substation will integrate the generation assets with the transmission line and the Serowe substation will tie in with BPC’s existing infrastructure. OptiPower, a division of Murray & Roberts Ltd, will complete this work with the substation contract due to be signed later, with completion scheduled to tie in with completion of the overhead line.
