March 2014

NAMIBIA AND Zambia have signed a power sharing deal that will see the later exporting surplus energy to Namibia.

Namibians energy utility, NamPower intends to import additional power from Zambia to combat power shortages in the country.

The power sharing deal involves exporting 100megawatts (MW)of electricity from Zambia. Namibia currently receives 50MW of electricity daily from the Zambia Electricity Supply Corporation (ZESCO) and NamPower is negotiating with the ZESCO to increase the supplies by an additional 100MW.

“We have requested for an additional 100MW of electricity daily and with the recent expansion of power stations in Zambia, it could be possible for Zesco to sell us more power,” Namibia’s utility boss Paulinus Shilamba said.

Namibia has the capacity to produce about 45 percent of its electricity. The rest is imported from neighbouring countries including Botswana, South Africa, Zimbabwe and Zambia.

The power sharing deal between Zambia and Namibia strengthens the regional cooperation in energy.

SOUTHERN AFRICA TODAY, March 2014 (Page 8,9) Full PDF  click here