GABORONE – Botswana has signed a deal to buy 70 per cent more electricity from nearby Mozambique over the next four years, in a bid to avert local shortages, the energy minister said Monday.
Under the deal, Gaborone will increase its power imports from Mozambique from 70 to 120 megawatts through 2013, when Botswana’s new Morupule B Power Station is expected to begin working, Energy Minister Ponatshego Kedikilwe told reporters.
He did not say how much the deal was worth, but said Botswana was ready to invest in more Mozambican power projects.
‘We explored the potential for investment in the projects for sources of revenue in order to enhance the economic diversification programme,’ Kedikilwe said.
Diamond-rich Botswana expects to suffer power cuts next year when South Africa, traditionally the main electricity supplier here, scales down its exports.
Kedikilwe said that Botswana was also in talks with neighbouring Zimbabwe to revive the defunct Bulawayo power station with the view to tapping power from the facility.
‘If it means investing money in the Bulawayo power plant, why not? We want to supply power to more and more villages in this country. It is in our interest to ensure power supply is not interrupted in any way,’ Kedikilwe said.
Kedikilwe also expressed concern that the power grid transporting electricity from Mozambique through Zambia and Zimbabwe needs to be refurbished.
Mozambique exports electricity around southern Africa from its Cahora Bassa dam, which it is working to upgrade. -Nampa-AFP
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