Putting People In The Power Picture

GOVERNMENT truly needs to put Namibia in the picture as far as power is concerned.

We know there is a crisis, and that Namibia’s dependency on South Africa is perilous in terms of the fact that our neighbour has a critical problem at home as well. We are told we are exploring options – but they are many and disparate; and the public is asked to cut back, but we are given no indications as to whether we are meeting stated targets or not.It would be difficult for most, and especially those who are not acquainted with the technicalities of electricity and power supply, to be able to assess what is going on, and so it is incumbent on Government in general, and the Minister of Mines and Energy and NamPower in particular, to put everyone in the picture and paint a holistic way forward.Just this week we had an announcement by NamPower Managing Director Paulinus Shilamba of an additional N$60 million (US$10 million) to be pumped into the Hwange power station in Zimbabwe.An amount of US$40 million had already been set aside for this purpose earlier this year.MD Shilamba also announced a N$350 million installation of a fourth turbine to help boost the power generation capacity of the Ruacana hydropower project.Other proposed projects, such as the much-talked-about Baines hydropower scheme and the Kudu offshore gas initiative, appear now to have been placed on the backburner while others such as the proposed 400MW power station at Walvis Bay, the Orange River mini-hydropower plant, a biofuel scheme in north-eastern Namibia and wind-power projects at Luederitz appear to be more sensible now.The public is left wondering just where we are at present and where we are going in terms of our national power plan, because there seems to be a number of projects rather than a holistic assessment that can clearly point a way forward.Meanwhile, power remains a critical problem.Only recently the country had a complete (albeit relatively brief) blackout as a result of a problem on the line from South Africa.It is an urgent issue that needs to be solved, and we believe that our Government and related parastatals are well aware of this, but the direction in which we are heading in the search for solutions is all over the place.It is not enough to just say that there will be no power blackouts during the festive season, as the NamPower MD did this week.The media and others have supported Government’s call for power-consumers to conserve as much as possible, but we believe that they need to provide clearly defined targets and keep the public constantly updated as to whether we are succeeding in this goal or not.They also need to update the public on the achievements of load-shedding (alternating power outages in specific areas) and whether this has resulted in savings.There appears to be a somewhat haphazard approach to providing power to Namibia, and we would call on NamPower to be far more specific on this issue or risk people losing interest in trying to conserve since there seems to be no urgency to do so.NamPower gave substantive information this week on the Hwange project, the Ruacana initiative, and the tender for approximately N$1 billion which it recently granted to the ABB group to connect portions of the country’s power grid and strengthen electricity networks in southern Africa – but ordinary Namibians are left wondering where this all leaves us in terms of power supply and the urgency to cut back on our usage.It would be very beneficial to keep Namibians in the loop – not merely on the technical level, which NamPower can be said to have done – but also to holistically show the way forward to a more lasting and tangible solution rather than the manifold options that appear to be currently on the table and consuming vast sums of money.In the case of Hwange for example, we were assured that this would be money well spent, and that power would come online from January 2008.Now we have forked out an additional amount, and it is to be hoped that the January deadline will be met – it is, after all, just around the corner! If not, then Namibians must be told why.In the case of Ruacana and the funding of the fourth turbine (which is designed to add 80 MW to the 240 MW already generated by the hydropower scheme), many will wonder why this had not been embarked upon earlier.It is essential that Government keep our people fully briefed on this most crucial problem that we continue to face, and provide us with a holistic plan on ways and means to generate own power and reduce dependency on our South African neighbours.We are told we are exploring options – but they are many and disparate; and the public is asked to cut back, but we are given no indications as to whether we are meeting stated targets or not.It would be difficult for most, and especially those who are not acquainted with the technicalities of electricity and power supply, to be able to assess what is going on, and so it is incumbent on Government in general, and the Minister of Mines and Energy and NamPower in particular, to put everyone in the picture and paint a holistic way forward.Just this week we had an announcement by NamPower Managing Director Paulinus Shilamba of an additional N$60 million (US$10 million) to be pumped into the Hwange power station in Zimbabwe.An amount of US$40 million had already been set aside for this purpose earlier this year.MD Shilamba also announced a N$350 million installation of a fourth turbine to help boost the power generation capacity of the Ruacana hydropower project.Other proposed projects, such as the much-talked-about Baines hydropower scheme and the Kudu offshore gas initiative, appear now to have been placed on the backburner while others such as the proposed 400MW power station at Walvis Bay, the Orange River mini-hydropower plant, a biofuel scheme in north-eastern Namibia and wind-power projects at Luederitz appear to be more sensible now.The public is left wondering just where we are at present and where we are going in terms of our national power plan, because there seems to be a number of projects rather than a holistic assessment that can clearly point a way forward.Meanwhile, power remains a critical problem.Only recently the country had a complete (albeit relatively brief) blackout as a result of a problem on the line from South Africa.It is an urgent issue that needs to be solved, and we believe that our Government and related parastatals are well aware of this, but the direction in which we are heading in the search for solutions is all over the place.It is not enough to just say that there will be no power blackouts during the festive season, as the NamPower MD did this week.The media and others have supported Government’s call for power-consumers to conserve as much as possible, but we believe that they need to provide clearly defined targets and keep the public constantly updated as to whether we are succeeding in this goal or not.They also need to update the public on the achievements of load-shedding (alternating power outages in specific areas) and whether this has resulted in savings.There appears to be a somewhat haphazard approach to providing power to Namibia, and we would call on NamPower to be far more specific on this issue or risk people losing interest in trying to conserve since there seems to be no urgency to do so.NamPower gave substantive information this week on the Hwange project, the Ruacana initiative, and the tender for approximately N$1 billion which it recently granted to the ABB group to connect portions of the country’s power grid and strengthen electricity networks in southern Africa – but ordinary Namibians are left wondering where this all leaves us in terms of power supply and the urgency to cut back on our usage.It would be very beneficial to keep Namibians in the loop – not merely on the technical level, which NamPower can be said to have done – but also to holistically show the way forward to a more lasting and tangible solution rather than the manifold options that appear to be currently on the table and consuming vast sums of money.In the case of Hwange for example,
we were assured that this would be money well spent, and that power would come online from January 2008.Now we have forked out an additional amount, and it is to be hoped that the January deadline will be met – it is, after all, just around the corner! If not, then Namibians must be told why.In the case of Ruacana and the funding of the fourth turbine (which is designed to add 80 MW to the 240 MW already generated by the hydropower scheme), many will wonder why this had not been embarked upon earlier.It is essential that Government keep our people fully briefed on this most crucial problem that we continue to face, and provide us with a holistic plan on ways and means to generate own power and reduce dependency on our South African neighbours.