Martin Endjala
The Ministry of Mines and Energy has announced that it is hard at work to make sure that it closes the gap of the country’s dependence on imported electricity from the Southern African Power Pool, by absorbing more Independent Power Producers (IPPs).
Mines and Energy Minister Tom Alweendo said that the ministry continues to ensure that it supplies electricity to the country.
As a result, over the last couple of years, the ministry has embraced the system of absorbing IPPs, because as of today, Namibia’s total electricity production at 85 percent through National Power Utility (NamPower) and 15 percent is by Independent Power Producers.
“In terms of energy during the year under review, we as a ministry are mandated to ensure that there is an electricity supply in the country or other source of energy, and also to look at raw minerals. In the space of energy. We continue to make sure that we have electricity that meets our demands for now.
Whether we are going to produce it ourselves or import it, we also need to make sure that we close that importation gap because we continue to import more of this electricity and we are doing that by embracing IPPS and not only relay on NamPower to be the producer of electricity,” said Alweendo.
Alweendo believes that the ministry needs to continue to ensure that more IPPs keep coming online so that going forward, NamPower can concentrate on distribution and not so much on production.
He added that the private sector can deal with production.
Furthermore, Alweendo stated that all the additions added to the grid are renewable energy, either from wind or solar, however, they are cognizant that they cannot continue to add more renewable energy without upgrading the grid because it will not be sustainable.
“That is why currently NamPower has as part of the investment programme also upgraded the grid, such that it can absorb more renewable energy that we need to add to the grid.
“By way of encouraging IPPs, you also recall that three years ago, we came up with a model system called Modified Single Buyer, whereby if you are an IPP you can also supply electricity directly to some of the largest consumers such as mines,” he explained.
