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GABORONE. — The long-delayed and troublesome Morupule B power plant, Botswana’s biggest ever coal-fired power plant, experienced fresh technical challenges recently which led to its complete shutdown. Botswana Power Corporation’s (BPC) spokesperson Spencer Moreri confirmed the plant’s shutdown to Xinhua yesterday, saying the scheduled recovery for the Morupule B power plant would be next week. The US$970 million 600MW power plant was completely shut down after it developed technical faults on its only two running units, unit 1 and unit 4. The other two units, unit 2 and unit 3, have been undergoing maintenance repairs since completing construction. The country expects another wave of sporadic electricity outages.
Meanwhile BPC said it will continue sourcing power from South African power utility Eskom and the diesel powered plants in Botswana. Eskom can provide BPC with 200MW while the two domestic diesel powered plants can yield 160MW. The country’s peak demand is about 600MW, and BPC has been left with a huge deficit forcing the corporation to resort to sporadic unscheduled load shedding. — Xinhua.
Online Reporter