Ruacana to the rescue

NAMIBIA’S power-generation capacity has improved enough to stave off any immediate need to load-shed, power utility NamPower said yesterday.

With the recent good inflow of water at Ruacana, the hydropower station is able to run at full capacity now to meet the country’s current daily need of around 405 megawatts. On its own, Ruacana is able to generate more than half this demand.General Manager of Energy Trading and New Works, Foibe Nemene, said yesterday that recent intermittent power outages in Windhoek were definitely not because of any load-shedding measures.”We are not planning to load-shed anybody.From our own network we are not experiencing any problems.If there are plans to load-shed, we will inform everybody,” Nemene said.She said there was no “list” to determine who would be the first to be plunged into the dark should it come to the crunch, but this would be done according to NamPower’s load-shedding policy, which applied not only to power shortages but any threat to the country’s supply network.In January, NamPower warned that reduced imports from South Africa because of problems at the Koeberg Nuclear Power station could force it to introduce load-shedding – cutting power supply to certain areas on a rotation basis – if it could not meet demand with locally generated electricity.But NamPower’s Werner Graupe, also of the Energy Trading department, said yesterday that in recent weeks the situation had improved dramatically and it was no longer necessary to run the costly, coal-fired Van Eck power station in Windhoek to meet domestic demand.”The water came very late, but when it came, it came with a vengeance,” he said.”There is no problem at the moment.The whole picture has changed for the better.”The Ruacana Hydropower station is currently generating around 249 megawatts and is receiving a higher water inflow than is required to run the station optimally.NamPower officials confirmed to The Namibian that the utility had met with its bulk customers, which include the country’s municipalities, to discuss a contingency plan in case it becomes necessary to ration supplies to certain clients.”At the moment we are still able to meet demand.Maybe during the colder periods it might become more difficult, but for now I would say for May, June and July we will be able to maintain supply,” Graupe said.At present Namibia imports only about 20 per cent of its power needs from South Africa.But Nemene and Graupe were both quick to point out that the current situation did not mean that Namibia was out of the woods in terms of meeting the country’s energy needs in the long term.Yesterday, the City of Windhoek’s Corporate Communications Manager Ndangi Katoma could not immediately explain an outage that affected parts of Windhoek West and Hochland Park during the afternoon.Katoma could only say that there was a “technical problem” and municipal workers were working on it.On its own, Ruacana is able to generate more than half this demand.General Manager of Energy Trading and New Works, Foibe Nemene, said yesterday that recent intermittent power outages in Windhoek were definitely not because of any load-shedding measures.”We are not planning to load-shed anybody.From our own network we are not experiencing any problems.If there are plans to load-shed, we will inform everybody,” Nemene said.She said there was no “list” to determine who would be the first to be plunged into the dark should it come to the crunch, but this would be done according to NamPower’s load-shedding policy, which applied not only to power shortages but any threat to the country’s supply network.In January, NamPower warned that reduced imports from South Africa because of problems at the Koeberg Nuclear Power station could force it to introduce load-shedding – cutting power supply to certain areas on a rotation basis – if it could not meet demand with locally generated electricity.But NamPower’s Werner Graupe, also of the Energy Trading department, said yesterday that in recent weeks the situation had improved dramatically and it was no longer necessary to run the costly, coal-fired Van Eck power station in Windhoek to meet domestic demand.”The water came very late, but when it came, it came with a vengeance,” he said.”There is no problem at the moment.The whole picture has changed for the better.”The Ruacana Hydropower station is currently generating around 249 megawatts and is receiving a higher water inflow than is required to run the station optimally.NamPower officials confirmed to The Namibian that the utility had met with its bulk customers, which include the country’s municipalities, to discuss a contingency plan in case it becomes necessary to ration supplies to certain clients.”At the moment we are still able to meet demand.Maybe during the colder periods it might become more difficult, but for now I would say for May, June and July we will be able to maintain supply,” Graupe said.At present Namibia imports only about 20 per cent of its power needs from South Africa.But Nemene and Graupe were both quick to point out that the current situation did not mean that Namibia was out of the woods in terms of meeting the country’s energy needs in the long term.Yesterday, the City of Windhoek’s Corporate Communications Manager Ndangi Katoma could not immediately explain an outage that affected parts of Windhoek West and Hochland Park during the afternoon.Katoma could only say that there was a “technical problem” and municipal workers were working on it.