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THE Southern African region faces a power deficit and this is curtailing efforts to improve the standard of living of its people. Electricity demand in the Southern African Development Community (Sadc) region is rising at 2.5 percent annually and the region currently has a shortfall of 7.7 GW. The available regional generation capacity is 51,702 MW against a demand of 59,144 MW. The Sadc region envisages having sufficient generation capacity reserves after 2016, if all projects are commissioned as planned. A total of 19,000 MW of new generation is expected to be commissioned between now and 2016, of which 3 percent will be renewable energy.
Sadc member states have been seized with the issue of addressing power shortages and in 1995, they came together to form the Southern Africa Power Pool in an effort to synergise their strategies towards ensuring universal access to electricity for their citizens. However, SAPP faces many challenges including lack of funds and infrastructure to achieve its goals.
Against this background, the Regional Electricity Regulators’ Association of Southern Africa 11th annual conference opened in Victoria Falls yesterday with delegates expected to discuss among other issues power shortages that are curtailing the region’s long-term economic development goals. The conference, which runs under the theme, “Leveraging the Sadc Region’s Energy Potential through an integrated approach”, seeks to discuss power generation, supply and demand in the Sadc region. During the two-day event, some of the key issues to be interrogated include developing a regional electricity market, Africa clean energy corridor, grid integration of renewable energy Independent Power Producers (IPPs) and electricity tariff and performance indicators.
Of late, the region has experienced power generation constraints and planned major investments to improve electricity generation but the projects remain on paper due to funding constraints. Among such vaunted projects is the Grand Inga in the Democratic Republic of Congo which is expected to generate over 40,000MW.
We hope the conference will come up with far reaching resolutions to address the current power deficit. Delegates need to find ways of raising money for the many projects that are outstanding and capacitate SAPP to fulfill its mandate which includes increasing the accessibility of electricity to rural communities, better the relationships between the involved countries, create strategies that will support sustainable development priorities and co-ordinating the planning of electric power.
By ensuring a stable and efficient supply of power, the Sadc region stands to improve industrial productivity in member states and in turn this will assist in Sadc’s mandate of poverty elimination across Southern Africa.
As it is only 5 percent of rural areas in Southern Africa have access to electricity, which curtails their ability to control sanitation, clean water, and food. In 2010, Sadc passed the Regional Energy Access Strategy and Action Plan, which aims to combine regional energy resources as a means of ensuring the entire Sadc region has access to affordable, sustainable electricity.
The plan’s goal is to within 10 years half the number of people in the region without access to energy until the region has universal access. This is achievable. Although decades of under-investment in the energy sector have seen Sadc countries at the receiving end of a biting energy crisis which is threatening to derail years of solid economic growth, it is still possible to overcome this problem through channelling more funds and resources into power generation.
Regional integration is also key in all sectors, including energy, as well as identifying those bottlenecks blocking or derailing the completion of much-needed electricity-generating projects. Zimbabwe has been working hard to boost electricity generation through both hydro and thermal power projects with the Kariba South project expected to unlock more electricity into the main grid.
Another major thermal project is planned for the Gwayi area of Matabeleland North while smaller power stations are also set to contribute significantly to the national grid. As we report elsewhere on the these pages, Zimbabwe has received a $108 million grant from the African Development Bank (AfDB) to improve electricity and water supplies in the country.
The money will be used to repair the Kariba Dam which generates most of the country’s power and to fix electricity transmission lines. This is a positive development which will go a long way in ameliorating the power situation in the country. Sadc needs to invest more in energy and power generation as it is key to unlocking the region’s potential.
Online Reporter