Namibia aimed to shift the bulk of its domestic electricity demand off cross-border suppliers as it expanded its own power generation capacity, Pretoria-based commercial office of the High Commission of Namibia commercial counsellor Bonaventura Hinda said on Tuesday.

Speaking at a Namibian investment seminar, held in Midrand, Hinda said that the distribution of the current supply to Namibia raised a red flag and the country needed to urgently increase capacity.

The nation, which has a population of 2.1-million, currently generates only 39% of its own electricity, with 40% of its power coming from South Africa’s Eskom, while the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (Zesco) and Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority (Zesa) contribute 9% and 12%, respectively, to the grid.

NamPower’s power purchase agreement (PPA) with Zesa is expiring in October, but has been extended for another year, while negotiations with Zesco are under way for an additional 100 MW of supply.

Further, in efforts to ensure security of supply, NamPower in March signed a PPA with Aggreko for the supply of 90 MW mid-merit power from Aggreko’s interim gas-fired power station in Mozambique, from June 1, until August 2015, with an option of further extension subject to the availability of gas.

Namibia currently has four power stations, including one coal-fired power plant, with a collective capacity of about 500 MW.

A recent Energy Sector Plan called for a more than 70% increase in power generation and investments of at least $170-billion over the next 15 years.

“NamPower is hard at work to produce power in surplus and export [its own] power by 2018,” Hinda commented, citing various projects.

Plans to add nearly 2 000 MW to the grid were under way, and the country aimed to be able to meet the country’s electricity demand, as well as export surplus energy, during the next five years.

Among Namibia’s power projects were a 600 MW hydropower initiative, two potential wind farm projects generating 114 MW, three small solar photovoltaic units, one diesel-powered station and an 800 MW gas-to-power plant project.

The engineering, procurement and construction tender evaluation for the $1-billion Kudu combined cycle gas turbine project would be completed by the end of the year, with contract awarding set for the second quarter of 2014.

The Oranjemund-based power station was expected to come on line in 2018.

A final recommendation on the $1.3-billion Baynes 600 MW hydropower project by the Permanent Joint Technical Commission between Angola and Namibia was expected by year-end following the approval of consultants’ submissions earlier this year.

Namibian Trade and Industry Deputy Minister Tweya Tjekero stated, in response to questions posed to him at the investment seminar, that despite the country’s vast uranium resources, plans to develop a nuclear plant had been shelved owing to “strategic reasons”.

He emphasised that, while no more information would be provided owing to these undisclosed strategic reasons, the country had not completely abandoned its nuclear plans.

However, if and when the time came to implement nuclear ambitions, he revealed that Namibia would be self-sufficient in terms of skills and being able to initiate and operate such a project without external management.

Meanwhile, in efforts to ensure short-term electricity supply amid increasing power shortages, NamPower initiated the short-term critical supply project.

The programme included implementing demand-side management initiatives; the N$300-million rehabilitation of the Van Eck power station – the first unit of which would come back on line mid-year, followed by the second unit in mid-2014 – and negotiating new, and extending existing, PPAs.