No blackouts, govt promises

The Ministry of Mines and Energy has agreed on short-term energy projects to ensure that Namibia will not experience electricity shortages for the period 2016 to 2019. Minister of Mines and Energy Obeth Kandjoze yesterday told journalists that after consultations with the Cabinet Committee on Trade and Economic Development on the state of the energy situation in Namibia, decisions were made on future plans and projects. “The Ministry of Mines and Energy wishes to assure the citizens and broader business public and other stakeholders that no further power shortage is anticipated,” Kandjoze said. He said his ministry acknowledged the challenges experienced in the sub-region and in particular Namibia with regard to the supply of electricity and following consultations with relevant stakeholders the issues were addressed. “The Ministry of Mines, Electricity Control Board (ECB) and NamPower have instituted measures to ensure that the country is secured with electricity supply for the period 2016 to 2019 through a raft mixture of projects,” he said. Kandjoze said various projects would be implemented, such as solar-energy projects, wind-energy projects, a diesel generation project and electricity imports. He further said that the government had given NamPower the green light to start negotiating with Xaris Energy on a 200MW gas-powered plant. Kandjoze said in addition to the short-term projects the Kudu gas project remains a national strategic project. He said the projects would be implemented without any Treasury support and government guarantees. Kandjoze said Namibia’s maximum energy demand currently stands at 611 megawatts (MW) and by the year 2020 the demand will be 879MW based on an estimated annual growth of 3%. “We are working together as a government to ensure that we have security of supply for our economy and we acknowledge that the challenges will require a multi-sectoral input led by this ministry,” he said. KENYA KAMBOWE