CHAMWE KAIRA
Power utility, NamPower is expecting to add 250 MW to the power grid when all the projects under its 2020-25 Integrated Strategic Business Plan are completed, Managing Director Simson Haulofu told Observer Money this week.
Haulofu furthermore disclosed that a new plan is expected to be completed in June 2025 and will speak to a number of things including addressing bottle necks in the transmission and many other things.
“We are already in our planning phase. We need to hire out a consultant to help us with a new plan, with the approval of the board.”
Of the projects under the business plan, the 20MW solar photovoltaic (PV) power plant in Omaruru in the Erongo region, has already been commissioned, Haulofu said.
He added there is another 20MW PV plant by an Independent Power Producer is reaching completion and is expected to commissioned by end of September or early, October. “We are actually planning for the inauguration, he added.
Furthermore, Haulofu said the 50 MW Anixas II Power Station in Walvis Bay has been completed. “That project is ready for commissioning, its finished. We are ready to take over the project in the next two weeks.”
Anixas II is expected to increase the generation capacity of NamPower as well as provide backup power to stabilise the grid due to the intermittency of Renewable Energy sources.
He expects the N$2 billion 40-megawatt biomass power station in Otjikoto, near Tsumeb to be completed in the first quarter of 2027. The project is the first and largest biomass power station in Namibia and will generate electricity by the combustion of wood chips from encroacher bush, which will be harvested from the surrounding areas of the project.
Also in the pipeline is a wind project in Luderitz, whose construction is expected to start soon, Haulofu said.
NamPower has also announced that it had awarded a N$1.4 billion contract to China Jiangxi International Economic and Technical Cooperation and CHINT New Energy Development to build a 100-megawatt (MW) solar power plant at Rosh Pinah. Haulofu said the project is expected to be commissioned after 18 months.
The plant will be the second largest PV project operated by NamPower and is expected to ensure that the country has electricity supply security and self-sufficiency.
“This 100 MW PV plant and other infrastructure projects currently under construction, culminated out of NamPower’s Integrated Strategic Business Plan in 2020 for the period 2020-2025,” said Haulofu.
